Bob,

if you can get one of these machines to test with, try using the
preferences editor built into the gui client. You can select 'exclude' or 
'exclude.dir'
or etc.  Depending on what you select, you can then drill down thru a tree to
select the folder, file etc.  The best thing is that it gets the necessary
quotes right the first time!

Hope this helps,

Bill Colwell

At 09:34 AM 5/9/2003, you wrote:
>Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking, and thanks for the advice on
>the IE and Netscape bookmarks!
>
>Now, does anyone have a good recommendation for crafting the option set to
>accomplish what is described?  I have a horrible time with Windows
>include / exclude statements, they never seem to do what I ask them to.
>
>What is the best way to exclude the whole disk, and then back up only
>a few selected directories?  Is there a more efficient coding statement
>
>thanks!
>
>bob
>
>On Fri, May 09, 2003 at 09:25:32AM -0400, Nicholas Cassimatis wrote:
>> All of the applications you listed have default save directories.  I'd
>> recommend setting up a client option set to backup only those directories,
>> then, when the users get their machines, they should also get a document to
>> sign saying something to the effect of "Any data I save outside the
>> established default directories (and you can list them here) will not be
>> backed up, and I accept the risk to that data," and a signature line at the
>> bottom.  This comes back to you and gets saved somewhere.  Once they sign
>> off, then you can let them run their backups.
>>
>> Two other things I'd add.  One, since you have a group that would clone
>> machines for a full restore, I'd probably also eliminate the System Object
>> from the domain - it's 200-400MB of data you don't need backed up, since
>> you'd be able to reclone and restore the whole system.  Two, don't forget
>> to backup their Internet Explorer Favorites (or Netscape bookmark file).
>> I've seen some people get very upset when that type of data is lost.
>>
>> Nick Cassimatis
>> nickpc AT us.ibm DOT com
>>
>> Think twice, type once.

----------
Bill Colwell
C. S. Draper Lab
Cambridge Ma.