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 Wednesday, May 20, 2015 6:17 PM Not a development question.

I agree with Troy, you do have to take a snap of the whole volume.  That being said, it's not best practice to have your databases on the same drive as your OS.  I would recommend moving the databases to their own volume.  

Thank you for everyone's response.

We have moved the exchange database to D volume and running successful backups. Windows backup only allows you to select the volume by default from what we can see. We then have the ability to exclude other data folders from this backup.