Selectors drive me crazy

[RandyB]

The Selector process is confusing, cumbersome, and the Help files don't help at all.

 

 

 

I wanted to do a few things that might not be all that unusual. Have a Disaster Backup that only backs up my C: (boot) partition. That way a single, 2-gig dat cartridge is enough. Doing a full machine backup would require 3-4 cartridges. (I've got 4 gigs in Ghost partition copies alone that I don't ever need Retrospect to backup.) Also, backup only my data files, which are found in a couple of folders on one partition. Either way requires setting up a selection process. Without the help of others in the Strategies forum, I never could have done it.

 

 

 

1. Source vs. files selected. I had Source as my whole pc, but Include as only D: (plus other things). This worked the first time, but on updates R starting looking at C:, E:, etc.

 

 

 

2. Selecting particular folders. Here's what I posted:

 

I have to say I think this selector process is way too complicated. For example, I couldn't figure out why excluding a folder wasn't working. What I was doing was starting with Universal/Name, then checking Folder and putting in what most Windows users consider a folder name. However, that approach only works with Window/Path/Folder. The syntax is different with Universal/Name/Folders. Only took me a couple of hours to figure that one out.

 

 

 

When you want to exclude or include by file date, again you have to be very careful. You don't want to use Windows/Date because there you get "access date". This is a meaningless date that may simply mean the last time the file was copied. For a meaningful Windows date, you need the date created or modified, which you only get to in Universal/Date. Grrrrr!

 

 

 

3. Mixing MacOS with Windows with Universal selectors. Why don't you just have Retrospect check the OS of the installation and only show the relevant choices? This looks like your programmers were too lazy to differentiate between a server (which might handle both Mac and Win) and a desktop version (that's one or the other) so they just left in all the selectors.

 

 

 

4. Editing pre-programmed selectors. It looks like you should be able to start with a pre-programmed selector, hit More Choices, and add to it. Nope. I learned - only after posting my question - that I needed to go to Special, duplicate a pre-programmed selector, and edit that. Those are filled with irrelevant MacOS selections that are tedious to remove.

 

 

 

I think the selection process should get a major revamping. Meanwhile, what wouldn't require a single byte of programming would be to upgrade the Help files with more explanation and some useful examples.

 

 

 

Randy