Hello Maxima
I'll forward your suggestions to the development team for future releases. However there are some items to note from your comments:
I had suggested to utilize the categories, not selecting individual directories. The categories will let you select groups of files at once. Utilizing the rules will help you cut out what you already know you may not want and slim things down. That helps you in reducing the amount transferred and ultimately stored.
It's not inherently a poor design but how many backup applications work. A temporary space is needed to encrypt and compress that large of amount of data. The cpu and memory usage, without this temporary directory, would go throug the roof otherwise. It's also only for the initial backup and then doesn't need a majority of that space again.
Relocating the temporary directory is not as simple as it may seem. The application has to comply with Microsoft Windows requirements partly to be certified and also to work properly with all versions of Windows. Microsoft requires that all user directories, such as this one, to write to the Documents and Settings in XP or Users folder in later versions. Otherwise the application would not have sufficent access rights in order to create its temporary files, settings and logs. If you look at many other applications you will see they also have user folders stored in those same locations.
1) Currently you cannot edit the extensions that the categories use. That's a possible future enhancement but I couldn't say when or if it will go into play since you have access to the custom rules. The format the rules use may be a little bit different than what you may be used to, in regards to wildcards, within Windows Search for example. The following will give you steps on how you can add them based on your needs:
· You would first login to your Norton Online Backup account as normal. · Click on Settings next to the Computer you wish to edit the file selection configuration. · Click on Custom. · Click on New Rule located towards the bottom of the page. It’s right across from the Done button · Select either Include or Exclude from the pull-down menu. · Enter your new rule as follows to select a specific file extension: C:\Documents and Settings\your username\Desktop\*\*.exeThis will automatically select all EXE files in that particular location or exclude them based on the rule type selected. Be careful in how generic you make the directory location. It has to scan that path to find a match so if you do C:\*\*.exe, it will scan all of C:. · Click SAVE to the right of the new rule once completed.
In your instance your rule would look something like: C:\Documents and Settings\youruserfolder\Desktop\*\*.ta2
Of course the directory path itself will change to match your system and you would add rules for the other extensions. I'd advise to create one for each extension type rather than making it *\*.ta*. The more refined the rules are the better the product can be at selecting the items you want.
2. I would have to see the rule format you used specifically to indicate what the issue was. It will work if you use the example above but I wouldn't suggest it.
3. The program specifically searches under Documents and Settings or Users for document files. It specifically does not go outside of that due to the large volume of possible matches that fall outside of the range. Most users would not like it to grab documents from locations such as Programs and Files if they were help documents or other items.
Although you are correct that it is likely not all users will have their data in My Documents/Documents a majority of them do. This is why the user is given the option to add custom folders or files outside of the categories.
4. Currently you can't. This is a feature enhancement likely to come with 2.0. You can purge an entire computer if needed currently but not individiual files as of yet.
You're going to ask why. This is due to how data is backed up and stored. As I previously mentioned it uses incremental technology to speed up backups. In order to purge a single file it has to purge every instance of that file, from the date you requested, all the way down to the first instance it was backed up. It can be a time intensive process as a result especially if you factor in the encryption involved.
The other factor is many customers tend to delete or accidentially de-select files and then realize they want them. This is another one of those majority use case scenarios. However it will all be moot once the purge feature becomes available.
5. Files are not deleted from the backup if you de-select them. The last copy remains for you to restore in the event that you need it. This follows the same reasoning as #4.
Please let me know if there are any other questions and I'll be happy to answer them.