During file-level backups of a Windows client hosting a SQL server, the following inclusion and exclusions apply:
• The following extensions are excluded if the SQL VSS component is running on the Windows client, .mdf, .ldf, and *.ndf.
Note: If the VSS component is not running, then these files are included.
• Files in SQL database/log directories are excluded.
To protect SQL data automatically excluded from file-level backups, use the procedures described in Executing SQL backups.