Patent ID: 8756201

Claim:
A method for backing up data, the method comprising: determining a file type; analyzing an operating system to determine if the file type is registered; when the file type is registered, associating the file type with only one rule from the group comprising: always-include, always-exclude, include-if, and exclude-if, wherein the include-if rule and the exclude-if rule include conditions comprising file modification time, file access time, and file size; when the file type is not registered, associating the file type with an always-exclude rule; storing the file type, file type registration, and rule in a file type table; adding a location to an exclusion location table; storing the file type table and exclusion location table in a storage device; loading the file type table; scanning a file for a file name, file type, file size, and file location; comparing the file to the file type table; applying the rule associated with the file's file type; updating a file backup list based on the rule application; and storing the file backup list on the storage device.