It would be very helpful, if the 'Disc Imaging' mode supports excluding of files and/or folders, like it is already possible in the 'File and Folder Backup'.

I'm trying to replace Drive Snapshot (where the requested feature is supported) by Macrium Reflect, but without this feature I unfortunately can't.

Would it be possible to add this feature?

Thanks in advance.

Hi HeyUser.

Thanks for posting.

We have evaluated the feature request many times in the past and draw the same conclusion. Removing files and folders from a VSS snapshot isn't something that we are implementing.

There is a Microsoft 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer' that will remove files from a snapshot, but it won't do this reliably. The problem is that the time allowed for the snapshot creation is critical and if files cannot be deleted in time during the post-snapshot phase then they will not be removed and the snapshot may fail. Also, this writer is not available with XP or Server 2003. (Which we still support)

Disk imaging is a volume level process and we feel that removing files from an image isn't an appropriate operation. If you wish to use the optimization writer then you can do so by editing a registry entry here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToSnapshotMacriumImage

If this entry doesn't exist then create a new 'Multi-String' value and enter the paths of the files you want to exclude.

Note: This is not supported by us and you must be running Vista and above or Server 2008 and above.

Kind Regards

Stephen

See our reviews on

Reflect V6
Windows 7 Home Premium
Presumably Reflect spends time processing pagefile.sys, even in differential backups.
Would that time be appreciable for a 5.8GB pagefile?
To eliminate this processing time, would the only way be to place pagefile.sys in its own partition, and omit backing up the partition?

No, it gets handled as a sparse file.

Regards, Richard V. ("Arvy")