Even worse, there is no option in the control panel to exclude all files except certain folders – for example your My Documents folder. Instead, you need to manually enter each folder across your hard drive that you want to exclude, and only leave the single folder that you want to backup out.

Here’s an easy way to exclude all files except your My Documents directory (or any other directory you want backed up)

First, browse to C:\ProgramData\Backblaze\bzdata (in Windows Vista/7), and open the BZInfo.xml document in Notepad. Now find the do_backup section – it should look something like

<do_backup dst_type=”bzdatacenter” dst_fileformat=”bzff” max_filesize_mb=”4000″ net_throttle=”50″ backup_schedule_type=”continuously” backup_schedule_detail=”none” >
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\” whichfiles=”all” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\windows\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\i386\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\users\all users\microsoft\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\users\all users\microsoft help\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\$recycle.bin\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\$recycler\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\recycler\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\msocache\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\program files\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\program files (x86)\” whichfiles=”none” />
</do_backup>

There are two settings in the config above that control what BackBlaze is backing up

<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\” whichfiles=”all” /> This line enables backup for all files across the C drive
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\windows\” whichfiles=”none” /> This line disables backup for all files located in C:\Windows\

So, if we change the <bzdirfilter dir=”c:\” whichfiles=”all” /> to <bzdirfilter dir=”c:\” whichfiles=”none” /> and add a line above the edited line, including the folder we want backed up, BackBlaze will exclude all files on C except the directory we allow.

In my example, I want to exclude everything on C drive except My Documents. My BZInfo.xml file looks like

<do_backup dst_type=”bzdatacenter” dst_fileformat=”bzff” max_filesize_mb=”4000″ net_throttle=”50″ backup_schedule_type=”continuously” backup_schedule_detail=”none” >
<bzdirfilter dir=”C:\Users\MattShadbolt\Documents\” whichfiles=”all” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\windows\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\i386\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\users\all users\microsoft\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\users\all users\microsoft help\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\$recycle.bin\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\$recycler\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\recycler\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\msocache\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\program files\” whichfiles=”none” />
<bzdirfilter dir=”c:\program files (x86)\” whichfiles=”none” />
</do_backup>

And that’s how to enable individual directory backup with BackBlaze. If you have more than one folder, just add the directory to the do_backup list.

One other thing to note. BackBlaze by default has a maximum backup file size of 4GB. If (for some reason) you want to exceed this file size limit, just change the max_filesize_mb=”4000″ option in do_backup. For example, lets make the maximum file size large enough to backup a DVD ISO

<do_backup dst_type=”bzdatacenter” dst_fileformat=”bzff” max_filesize_mb=”6000″ net_throttle=”50″ backup_schedule_type=”continuously” backup_schedule_detail=”none” >

Hopefully this helps some of those BackBlaze users out there! As I said earlier, I’m a big fan of BackBlaze, but it would be nice if they enabled these settings out of the box.

.

Even a Google search for Symantec LiveState doesn’t list the new product name – Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Server.

For those people like me assuming LiveState had been discontinued – follow the link below for the “new” version

http://www.symantec.com/business/products/sysreq.jsp?pcid=pcat_storage&pvid=1602_1