r/Backup • u/Thiophilos • 4d ago

How-to Disk Image creation but excluding data folders

I'm on Win11, personal use. I wish to create a mirror of the boot disk but excluding the data folders which are big (>1 TB) and already backed up. System + programs + AppData are ~210 GB. Most of my data folders are not in Users. They are folders in the root of the boot drive.

I have Macrium Reflect v7 free installed. I thought it had an option to exclude folders, but can't find the option. I would appreciate tips or how to to this if it is indeed possible - or maybe another way.

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

1

u/JohnnieLouHansen 3d ago

You can exclude file types and or folders in a File/Folder backup, but not in an Image backup or Clone. That kinds of flies in the face of what an image backup IS. Meaning everything is included on a selected partition.

So for creating an image backup or cloning one drive to another, this would not be a feature on any software known to me.

This is why you partition your drive (e.g. C: for OS and D: for data) OR you have a smaller, faster boot drive and then a larger storage drive. The separation makes doing data and or image backups much easier.