We Got Served – Windows Home Server & Your Digital Home

Last time, we set up and configured access to brand new shared folders in Windows Home Server, and previously, we set up all of our users on the home server. Once all of this is complete, it’s time to configure which folders on our home computers we’d like to be backed up. Or rather, which we’d like to exclude.

I know what you’re thinking… when we installed the Windows Home Server Connector, didn’t we configure how the home server backed up our computers? Top marks for remembering – yes, when you install the Windows Home Server Connector, you configure whether you’d like the home server to wake up each computer if it’s sleeping or hibernating but you’ll also remember that was about all you could configure.

So I bet you’re thinking that Windows Home Server is now backing up everything on that computer. Unfortunately not!

In their wisdom, to save backup database space and reduce the time required each night to backup your home computers, Microsoft exclude a number of folders from being backed up by Windows Home Server, as they believe the data in there isn’t worth backing up, or will take up too much space. Furthermore, they’ don’t tell you about these excluded folders when you’re installing the Windows Home Server Connector. To add a third crime to the sheet, you can’t change these default exclusions, you can only add additional folders to be excluded.

This has caused a little controversy over the last couple of years, but that’s the way it is right now at the time of writing. So, which folders do Microsoft automatically exclude?

• Client side cache folders
• User temporary files (anything in a folder called Temp)
• Recorded TV
• System page file
• Recycle bin folder
• Hibernation file
• Shadow volume implementation folder

The two folders to pay particular attention to here are “Recorded TV” and “User temporary files” – make sure you move any Recorded TV you wish to keep safe into the Recorded TV Shared Folder on the home server, and only place really, really temporary files in any folder called Temp or Temporary.

One other thing to know – Windows Home Server can only back up drives using the NTFS file system. Generally, Windows configures most drives by default to use NTFS, but if you have a drive that is using FAT32, then WHS won’t back it up.

Okay, with that, let’s talk through how to exclude other folders from being backed up. I’ll assume you’ve logged into the home server console on one of your home computers.

Step 1: Click on the Computers & Backup Icon

This will bring up a list of computers that Windows Home Server is currently protecting.

Step 2: Right click on the computer hosting the folder to be excluded.

A menu will pop up. Select “Configure Backup”.

The Backup Configuration Wizard will start. Click Next to begin.

Step 3: Select any volumes you’d like to exclude from backup.

“Volume” is a bit of a funny word, isn’t it? Basically what they mean here is that you can exclude any entire physical hard disks, or disk partitions you may have set up on that computer. For example, the computer I’m using as an example above only has one disk, but that disk is split into two partitions. One for all of my files (C:) and a second “Recovery Partition” that the manufacturer placed there which I could use to restore my computer if there’s a problem. Windows Home Server classes this as two volumes.

As I’ve upgraded my computer to Windows 7, I’ve decided that I no longer want to back up that Recovery Partition, so clear the check box to exclude it. If you don’t want to exclude any volumes, leave everything checked and click Next to continue.

Step 4: Choose Folders to Exclude From Backup

You can now see the list of automatically excluded folders that I discussed earlier – they’re all greyed out so you can’t play with them. Click Add and you’ll bring up a folder view of your computer.

Use the Plus buttons to drill down into each folder. Select the folder you want to exclude and then click Exclude.

Step 5: Check Your Changes

The folder you selected will be added to the list of excluded folders. To select more, just click Add and repeat the last step. Once you’re finished, click Next to complete the wizard.

Step 6: You’re done!

You’ll be shown a summary of the new backup instruction, and you’re free to do something else!

In our next Get Started article, we’ll learn how to install an add-in.