Date: 2016jan21 Product: Backblaze OS: Windows Q. Backblaze: How can I make my first Backblaze backup faster? A. You can crank up the speed in the "Performance" tab of settings. But I won't recommend that if you use the connection for anything else. There are options to exclude things. I think it makes sense to initially exclude quite a bit. Say exclude everything but your important personal files - eg c:\photos Next, if you are like me you have overlapping historic backups - eg

c:\backups\photos_2000_to_2014.zip c:\backups\photos_2000_to_2015.zip

So at least at the start, exclude .zip files I have a folder of applications I have installed on my PC called c:\installs In there have I have subfolders for:

c:\installs\downloaded c:\installs\purchased

Obviously, the purchased apps are more important to backup so exclude c:\installs\downloaded at first. Having this organization helped with that. For me, excluding .iso files (again, only at first) was a big win. Since I have many CD images. There are some things that just aren't necessary to backup, like:

c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Sqm c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis c:\msocache c:\recycler

In general, have a look at "Files Scheduled for Backup" and see if there are any huge lower priority things. And exclude them. Don't forget to eventually, unexclude nearly everything. Purchase Backblaze with my referral https://secure.backblaze.com/r/014vck