Backup sets for Windows let you select files for backup based on certain
criteria, such as file name, file creation date, and file size. This approach
to selecting files requires the backup software to search your files to find
ones that meet the criteria. The fewer the number of files that need to be
searched, the less time it takes to identify files that need to be backed up.
You can improve performance by with a few backup set guidelines.
- Use the Settings window
File System tab to explicitly select files for
backup instead of using a backup set whenever possible.
- Be as specific as possible
when selecting the folder to which a backup set applies, and avoid starting at
the root of the drive.
- Use backup set rules,
especially ones that specify file types, to reduce the scope of what you want
to back up. For example, if you only want to back up files with a certain file
extension (.jpg, .docx, ,mp3, and so forth), add a rule to only back up files
with that extension.
- Generally, excluding files
by creating an exclusion backup set (advanced backup set feature) is better
than creating a rule within a backup set to exclude files. For example, a
backup set to back up a folder and another backup set to exclude a certain file
type is generally better than one backup set for the folder with a rule to
exclude certain file types.
- Avoid rules for file names
that do not specify an exact search. For example, a rule that searches for a
file name that contains "IMG".
- Limit the number of backup
sets enabled.
- The order of the rules in a
backup set affects the processing time.
- Place folder rules near
the top of the list of rules.
- Place file type rules
near the top but after folder rules.
- Place rules that use
wildcards at the bottom.