Hello

I would like to backup exchange database with Windows backup. We have Exchange 2010 on a Windows 2012 R2 server. From the articles I have been reading I would like to confirm the best practice in backing up the mailbox database. Is it recommended to backup the entire volume without exclusions or can I backup the V14 folder only. If the entire volume is recommended, what exclusions are acceptable in order to minimize size of backup.

Thank you

• Moved by Jason Johnston [MSFT]Microsoft employee 13 hours 12 minutes ago Not a development question.

You should backup whatever volumes your databases reside on.  For example if your databases reside on the D:\ you should target that location.

As for the Exchange binaries, I wouldn't back them up just because to recover a server yuo would need to rebuild it anyway, and reinstall exchange with the /recoverserver switch.

So you need to ensure you backup the Exchange Databases the proper way and not the same way you would backup a file on disk.  Here are a few good links for you

• https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876854%28v=exchg.150%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
• http://exchangeserverpro.com/backup-exchange-server-2013-databases-using-windows-server-backup/

Thank you Hinte

My database resides on the C drive. Can I select the V14 folder only, and exclude the Windows, Users, Program Files folder for example.

You should really ready the articles I provided since doing an Exchange Aware backup is different then backing up files. 

Thank you Troy, I have read these articles which are similar to the others I have read. Like the other articles, there is no detailed description of what can be excluded are which folders are important to backup other than the obvious V14 folder. Do you have more insight on this? My database is on volume C and to back this up entirely would be quite large.

Thank you

Yes unfortunately for the FREE backup they have you do a FULL VSS snapshot of the entire volume, no way to just protect the EDB and Logs.  For that you need a 3rd party product... :-(