The Tom Kirkham Show

Files Carbonite Will Not Backup

I've mentioned Carbonite online backup quite a bit (and it is great!), but got frustrated when I could not find out exactly which files it would backup and which files it would not. A quick email to the rapid response support team at Carbonite set the record straight. For those wanting to know, here are the files and directories that are excluded.

"The following folders are excluded from Carbonite backups:

"%WINDIR%\*",
"%TEMP%\*",
"%TMP%\*",
"\Recycler\*",
"\Recycle Bin\*",
"\System Volume Information\*",
"\MSOCache\*",
"\I386\*",
"\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\*", // skipped because most of this is system configuration stuff
"\Documents and Settings\*\Cookies\*",
"\Documents and Settings\*\Local Settings\History\*",
"\Documents and Settings\*\Local Settings\Temp*",
"\Documents and Settings\*\NetHood\*",
"\Documents and Settings\*\PrintHood\*",
"\Documents and Settings\*\History\*",
"\Documents and Settings\*\NTUSER.DAT",
"\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\Cache\*",
"\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\Opera\Opera\profile\cache*",
"\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\Microsoft\CryptnetUrlCache\*",
"\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\Yahoo! Desktop Search\*",
"\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop\*",
"\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\Microsoft Help\*",
"\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\Carbonite\*",
"\Program Files\Carbonite\Carbonite Backup\*",
"\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Clipart\*",

The following file types are excluded from Carbonite backups:

.bak;.log;.cab;.cf1;.chm;.com;.cpl;.dll;.dmp;.drv;.evt;.exe;.inf;.ico;.iso;.jar;.lex;.lib;.msi;.msm;
.mst;.ocx;.otf;.pnf;.pf;.prn;.reg;.rll;.swf;.sys;.ttf;.tmp;.vxd;.chq;.chw;.hlp;.hxi;.hxq;
.hxr;.hxs;.abf;.afm;.bdf;.dfont;.eot;.fnt;.fon;.lwfn;.otf;.pfa;.pfb;.pfm;.suit;.ttc;.ttf;.ani;.ann;
.bmk;.cnt;.cpl;.cur;.dev;.drv;.dvd;.ffa;.ffl;.ffo;.ffx;.ftg;.fts;.gid;.grp;.idx;.img;
.ini;.ins;.ipf;.isp;.its;.kbd;.kext;.key;.msc;.msp;.nt;.plist;.pol;.pref;.prf;.pwl;.reg;
.scf;.scr;.sdb;.swp;.sys;.theme;.vga;.vgd;.vxd;.fxp;.jse;.obs;.prg;.rox;.shb;
.tms;.vbe;.wpk;.$$$;.$db;.113;.abk;.bac;.bck;.bcm;.bdb;.bkf;.bkp;.old;.rdb;
.win;.PCH;.SBR;.PDB;.OBJ;.BSC;.ILK;.NCB;.IDB;.v2i;.ost;.lnk;.vhd;.vmc;.vmdk;.vmsd;.vmx;.vmsn;

system/;dtSearch*;Intermediate *;VMWare*;Virtual PC*;Virtual Machine*

Additionally, music and video files are excluded during free trial subscriptions of Carbonite.

Files that end in "_" or "~" don't get "Back this up" option in context menu. It means it's a compressed system file. It can be renamed (from the command line) to an extension w/out the "_" (underscore)or the "~"(tilde) and then you will get the backup option."

Make sure that the files you want to be backed up are not included in the above exclusions. Of special note is SQL database backup files are *.BAK by default. Change the file extension to get them included in the backup.