Backup Filter is a set of user defined criteria to include or exclude directories and files as backup source of a backup set. There are some basic rules regarding backup filters:
- Filters are applied in creation order.
- Inclusion or exclusion made by filter takes precedence over backup source selections.
To add a new filter, press the [Add] button at the bottom of the right panel.
Menu Item |
Description |
Name |
The name of a filter. |
Top Directory |
The top directory to which this filter is applied. Filtering rules will be applied to all files and/or directories under this directory. All Hard Disk Drives . select all local hard drives as the top directory automatically. |
Apply To |
Define whether to apply the filtering rule to files and/or directories. |
Pattern Matching |
It defines the filtering rules of a filter. A filtering rule can be one of the following types; [Starts With] Include/Exclude all files/directories with name starting with a certain pattern. Example: You can use B* to match all file with name starting with a B character. [Contains] Include/Exclude all files/directories with name containing a certain pattern. Example: You can use *B* to match all files with name containing with a B character. [Ends With] Include / Exclude all files / directories with name ending with a certain pattern. e.g. You can use *.doc to match all files with name ending with .doc (all Word Documents) [Regular Expression] Include/Exclude all files/directories with name matching a regular expression. To add a new pattern, press the [Add] button in the [Pattern Matching] area. Note: Backup filter is case sensitive. |
Filter mode |
Defines whether you want to include or exclude matched files into/from the backup set. Also, for those unmatched files, you can choose to exclude (if include filter type) or include (if exclude filter type) them into/from the backup set. |
*The availability of features listed above may be service provider dependent. If a feature is not available, please check with your service provider for further details and availability.
The following are a list of examples with different filter settings.
Example 1:
To backup only Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents in the document directory (e.g. C:\My Documents), setup the backup filter as follows:
Top Directory = C:\My Documents
Apply To = File (true)
Matching Type = End With
Matching Patterns = *.doc, *.xls, *.ppt
Filter Mode = Include
Exclude all others = True
Example 2:
To backup all files, excluding all *.exe, *.dll and *.tmp, in C:\Application, setup the backup filter as follows.
Top Directory = C:\Applicaitons
Apply To = File (true)
Matching Type = End With
Matching Patterns = *.exe, *.dll, *.tmp
Filter Mode = Exclude
Include all others = True
Example 3:
If C:\ was selected as backup source, to exclude all images (e.g. *.jpg and *.gif) from the backup source selection, setup the backup filter as follows.
Top Directory = C:\
Apply to = File (true)
Matching Type = End With
Matching Patterns = *.jpg, *.gif
Filter Mode = Exclude
Include all others = false
Note that the [Include all others] setting is not enabled because it is not necessary to include all other file types under C:\ into the backup set.
Example 4:
To include everything, except the log directory, under C:\Applications, setup the backup filter as follows.
Top Directory = C:\Applications
Apply To = Directory (true)
Matching Type = Regular Expression
Matching Patterns = ^log$
Filter Mode = Exclude
Include all others = True
Example 5:
To include all directories named log from the backup set files with file name starting with B and ending with *.doc under C:\My Documents, the filter backup can be setup as follows.
Top Directory = C:\My Documents
Apply To = File (true)
Matching Type = Regular Expression
Matching Patterns = ^B.*\.doc$
Filter Mode = Include
Exclude all others = True