Backing up a computer should be preached about more often, yet so many computer users ignore the warnings. There is no amount of money that can restore the lost photos of little Suzie when she was just learning to walk. Backups are highly important regardless of your status as a user. From businesses to home users the bottom line is this:
If you have data you want to protect, then you must have a backup.
Most backup programs allow you to determine if you want to backup everything, or specific folders. If you are looking to make sure that you are backing up only what is needed, here is a list of some file extensions that you will want to add to the exclusion list of your backup software.
Adding these to the exclusions will decrease the amount of time the backup takes as well as decreases the destination drive size needed to complete the backups as well. Another bonus is that when you go to restore files it will be quicker and easier to navigate through the files when making the selection of what to restore.
Over the years of doing IT work, I have compiled a list of extension that you can ignore. Below is the list.
.$$
.$db
.113
.3g2
.3gp
.3gp2
.3gpp
.3mm
.a
.abf
.abk
.afm
.ani
.ann
.asf
.avs
.bac
.bck
.bcm
.bdb
.bdf
.bkf
.bkp
.bmk
.bsc
.bsf
.cab
.cf1
.chm
.chq
.chw
.cnt
.com
.cpl
.cur
.dev
.dfont
.dll
.dmp
.drv
.dv
.dvd
.dvr
.dvr-ms
.eot
.evt
.exe
.ffa
.ffl
.ffo
.ffx
.flc
.flv
.fnt
.fon
.ftg
.fts
.fxp
.gid
.grp
.hdd
.hlp
.hxi
.hxq
.hxr
.hxs
.ico
.idb
.idx
.ilk
.img
.inf
.ini
.ins
.ipf
.iso
.isp
.its
.jar
.jse
.kbd
.kext
.key
.lex
.lib
.library-ms
.lnk
.log
.lwfn
.m1p
.m1v
.m2p
.m2v
.m4v
.mem
.mkv
.mp2
.mp2v
.mpv
.mpv2
.msc
.msi
.msm
.msp
.mst
.ncb
.nt
.nvram
.o
.obj
.obs
.ocx
.old
.ost
.otf
.pch
.pf
.pfa
.pfb
.pfm
.pnf
.pol
.pref
.prf
.prg
.prn
.pvs
.pwl
.qt
.rdb
.reg
.rll
.rox
.sbr
.scf
.scr
.sdb
.shb
.suit
.swf
.swp
.sys
.theme
.tivo
.tmp
.tms
.ttc
.ttf
.v2i
.vbe
.vga
.vgd
.vhd
.video
.vmc
.vmsd
.vmsn
.vmx
.vxd
.win
.wpk
As always, make sure to check your backups to verify that the data you wanted to save is actually there.
An ounce of prevention and checking can save you a lot of heartache!
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