Knowledge Base

There are multiple ways to add or remove files from a backup schedule. This article reviews these options and under what circumstances it is recommended to use each. By default, files and folders are “Unselected” A brand new backup schedule will not have any pre-selected files or folders.  All check boxes are empty, indicating that all items are Unselected. On certain folders, it is recommended to select “Everything” 

• Clicking the empty check box next to a file or folder will include that item and all child items (current and future) in your backup schedule.  When you see a blue check mark in the box, you know that Everything is selected.
• You will want to select Everything only on very specific folders, such as “C:\Users\<Name>\Documents” and “C:\Users\<Name>\Desktop” where it is critical that all current and future folder contents be included for backup.

When you need more granular control over what sub-item(s) to include or exclude from a backup, we offer three options.

• “Exclude” named files or folders – Right click over the item and select Exclude.  This is the preferred method of excluding files from a backup schedule.  Exclude explicitly excludes specified files and sub-folders so they are skipped during backup. Common types of files and sub-folders to exclude:
  • Folders such as Temp or AppData which contain temporary or application-specific files.  These include C:\Users\<Name>\AppData and C:\Users\<Name>\NTUSER.DAT
  • Very large files or folders such as pictures or videos, especially when these are not essential to backup on this machine (ex: they were downloaded from a public data source such as YouTube, or are already backed up elsewhere such as an online photo album.

• “Filter” out certain types of files or folders – Right click over the item and select Filters.  This creates a wildcard search for certain file names or extensions to be excluded from the backup schedule.  This is helpful for excluding all files of a certain type, or with a certain naming convention
  • Recommended file extensions to exclude would be *.tmp or *.log
  • Example file name filters would be *cat_pictures* or *notes*

• “Unselect” a specific file or sub-folder – Left click over the item to Unselect it.  Be aware that by unselecting any “child” item within a folder causes ONLY the currently checked items to be included in the backup schedule.  You’ll know this option is invoked when the parent folder has a grey check mark in it.  In this state, any future child items added to this folder WILL NOT be automatically backed up.

Lastly, we also offer a way to “Synchronize” your eSilo backup to your source computer.

• It’s important to note that in order to protect customers from accidental or malicious file deletion, eSilo was designed with data retention in mind.  By default (and unless you invoke the Synchronize option), our software retains a copy of every file you’ve ever backed up–even if it’s since been deleted on your source computer.
  • There are several advantages with this design:
    • If you accidentally delete a file from your source machine, but don’t realize it until months, or years later, you can still restore it from eSilo.  This scenario is useful for businesses with strict data archival requirements (ex: seven year data retention) for files that are not frequently accessed.
    • If a file is maliciously deleted (ex: by a disgruntled employee or computer virus) from your source machine–even a year ago–you can recover it from your eSilo history with ease.
  • A few considerations to be aware of:
    • When doing a full restore of eSilo files (ex: your hard drive crashed), you may restore unused or unwanted files that were previously cleaned off the source machine, which could extend data restore times.
    • Files previously removed or cleaned up on the source machine will take up storage space in eSilo.
• Knowing that one-size never fits all, we allow customers to selectively disable this feature on a folder by folder basis, and instead Synchronize files between your source machine and eSilo (right click over the folder(s) and select Synchronize).  With Synchronize enabled, files deleted from the source machine will also be removed from eSilo backup as soon as the next backup runs.
• We recommend only using Synchronize on folders where it is known that many files, or large files, may be frequently generated and later purged from the system when no longer needed (ex: database backups that are time stamped and generated daily).