Selectors not working.

[Dolf]

I have set a ton of selectors. Many of them are blocked by "file name ends with." One of these is .mp3. For some reason, a bunch of computers are getting their mp3s backed up when I watch the script run for a while. How can I make sure these get blocked? I just want to make sure this isn't happening with movie files and others as well. Is there a reason my selector isn't working? Any good selector tricks?

 

--Dolf

[natew]

Hi

 

You may have actually _included_ the files with another matching criteria. Is it all mp3s or just some? Do they have anything in common?

 

Nate

[Dolf]

I can't tell anything the similar with the mp3s. The only ones I know about are the ones that have errors during backup. Everyone's could be getting backed up for all I know.

 

I've selected:

 

file name ends with .mp3

 

and

 

file kind is MP3

 

I'm also blocking all folders named "My Music" and "Music".

 

I'm just interested in knowing why ANY selectors wouldn't work. I'm blocking tons of other stuff. How do I know those items are being blocked?

 

Thanks!

 

--Dolf

[AmyJ]

From the Knowledgebase:

 

A Selector is a feature that allows you search for files and/or folders that match a certain criteria. They act as filters for your source or destination data. Retrospect users have the option to use standard Selectors, or create their own custom selectors. Retrospect Express users only have the default Selector choices.

 

As a general rule, we at Dantz encourage backing up "All files." More is always better.

 

Note: A selector makes a backup easier. It does not make a restore easier.

Retrospect is not just backup software, it is restore software.

 

Most users who use a selector will be disappointed at the time of a complete

system restore. Murphy's Law says, "The one item you didn't back up is the

item you need to restore after a system crash."

 

Setting up and troubleshooting Selectors

 

Selectors are tricky. As a user you need to make sure that the selection criteria itself is correct, and then you need to make sure they've been linked correctly.

 

Selectors use Boolean logic. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that unrelated criteria are linked by "or." For example, How do you select a folder whose name is "Applications" AND whose name is "System Folder?" It's impossible. The correct way to backup both the "Applications" and the "System Folder" is to select the OR command.

 

Another good thing to remember is to "check" your Selector. To check the Selector, go to the Selector creation window. On the Windows platform choose the “blue check mark” and then choose a volume for the Selector. On the Macintosh platform, while in the Selector creation Window, choose Selector from the drop-down menu then choose "Check Selector" from the Selector menu. On both platforms you will be prompted to choose a volume and Retrospect will apply your Selector to that volume in real-time. This will save you having to wait until a backup or restore to see if your Selector has been working correctly.

[shadowspawn]

Amy's post from the knowledge base has lots of good info. Two key points for your question:

 

 

 

1) If the Selector window shows the "and" you used in your description, then you are excluding files which end with .mpr and at the same time have file type MP3. This may not be what you were intending.

 

 

 

2) You can test your selector from within the Selector window, use Check Selector from the Selector menu. This is a great feature, and can be very educational! However, it can be intimidating wading through the results of a test of a complex selector on a whole volume, so remember you can use a Subvolume to test against a smaller set of files.