Vista backup, at least in the Business version, is more suited for
unsophisticated home users than for business users. Without some way of
previewing what will be backed up, you have to actually do a backup and
then methodically look through every empty folder (who thought it was a
good idea to backup empty folders?) to see what was and was not
included. That is a terrible waste of time! Yet, nowhere is there any
detail of precisely what will be included in each category. I spent days
searching white papers, MS blogs, technet, etc. and still had only a
sketchy idea. It was only through trial and error that I learned that,
for example, "Documents" were not the contents of the documents folder,
but apparently a group of files with certain suffixes located anywhere.
The other categories are similarly vague. Obviously a specific criteria
is used, but it's kept secret. The result for me was spending a lot of
time testing what should have been transparent only to discover that
many crucial files were not backed up. To add insult to injury, better
than 1/2 of the backup space was taken up with files that could and
should have been excluded.
The "important files/folders" as you said is really arrogant. Important
to who? The user's opinion of what "important files/folders" are is the
only opinion that matters. If a file that is crucial to the user is
assumed to be backed up, but isn't, you'll quickly see what I mean. To
hide what those "important files/folders" are is the height of
arrogance. Vista backup in the Business version has gone far beyond
helpful handholding. It assumes that the software engineers know what is
important to a business than the business itsef.
I really liked the promise of the vista backup, but the reality was
very disappointing. It would have been disaster had I actually relied on
it.
I've been testing Genie Backup Manager and so far it is doing exactly
what I want. It was easy to configure, yet I have complete control over
what is and is not included. Best of all, it didn't hide what it was
going to do. You can select categories as in Vista backup that clearly
spell out what is and is not included. You can also add or subtract
specific folders, files, or file types.
Sorry, this has been boiling around inside me for months. I guess I
finally unloaded!
Don
'Sushil Baid [MSFT Wrote:
> ;770945']wanted to know - what backup application are you using?
>
> vista backup does not allow to select the folders. it picks the
> important
> files/folders based on category selection.
>
> --
> -sushil [MSFT]
> this information is provided as-is without any warranties, implicit or
> explicit.
> "DonH" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
> news:5259c00c94f4f057df26dd4d93d56687@xxxxxx-gateway.com...> > >
> > >
> > > You can move the physical location of your personal folders from the
> > > default location on the C: drive to a different partion or drive. It
> > is
> > > explained here:
> > >
> > http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/107990-personal-user-shell-folders-move-location.html> > > > >
> > > > > Vista uses icons with green folders for the personal folders. Click> > > >
> > > start and then the user name on the top right of the black column
> > and
> > > you'll see them. When I redirected Documents to a new folder on
> > D: it
> > > displayed the same green Documents folder icon, but only if I
> > left it
> > > named "new". When I renamed the folder to something more
> > meaningful
> > > first, it retained the standard yellow folder icon. The green
> > icon is a
> > > good reminder that it's actually a personal folder.
> > >
> > > My concern is making sure that I'm backing up the contents of the
> > > redirected folders if I don't also select the folders on D: when
> > doing
> > > the file backup in Vista Business. On the other hand, I think
> > that doing
> > > both duplicates the same files, causing a lot of bloat in the
> > backups.
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > DonH > >
--
DonH
, D:\New Folder2, and D:\New Folder 3.
Linear Mode
