USMT Backing up More than I Thought it Would
Okay, I'm a little confused with what USMT is backing up in testing. I'm using USMT 4 right out of the WAIK 2.0 install and I have not modified any of the XML files. So, everything is default out of the box. My backup script executes ScanState and only feeds it Migdocs.xml (again, unmodified) and no other XML files. Based on this TechNet Article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd560792%28WS.10%29.aspx (What does USMT Migrate?) I would not expect anything outside of the user's profile that does not match the specified file types from being backed up. Thing is, USMT is backing up everything perfectly, even files I wouldn't expect it to be backing up. For example, it will back up the iTunes library and will not miss a single MP3 or M4A file, yet neither of these extensions is listed in any of the XML files. Don't get me wrong, this is a good thing. I'm just at a loss as to how to explain it to management. Any suggestions as to why? Thanks Mike
November 24th, 2010 2:44pm

USMT does not only backup data and settings from the profiles. By default it will also scan the entire local disk for additional folders and files (most of them based on extensions). Its the XML templates (miguser.xml and migapp.xml) that determine what data and settings to backup / Johan
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November 24th, 2010 4:29pm

Thanks Johan. Michael Niehaus responded as well to this question on the ITForums. He said that USMT will parse HKCR and also migrate files that are registered there when using Migdocs.xml. Migdocs instructs USMT to collect ALL document types registered by installed applications. So on my test machine, since iTunes is installed the MP3 and M4A files were backed up (because they were registered document types from iTunes). Thanks Mike
November 25th, 2010 3:09pm

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