Full, Incremental, and Differential Backups:

Full Backup Advantages:

• All files from the selected drives and folders are backed up to one backup set.
•  In the event you need to restore files, they are easily restored from the single backup set.

Disadvantages:

• A full backup is more time consuming than other backup options.
•  Full backups require more disk, tape, or network drive space.

Incremental Backup:

• An incremental backup provides a backup of files that have changed or are new since the last incremental backup.

For the first incremental backup, all files in the file set are backed up (just as in a full backup). If you use the same file set to perform a incremental backup later, only the files that have changed are backed up. If you use the same file set for a third backup, only the files that have changed since the second backup are backed up, and so on.

In Backup you can select files and/or folders to be backed up. If you select a folder, all the files and folders within that folder are selected. In an incremental backup, if you select a folder, files that are added to the folder are included during the next backup. If you select specific files, files that are added to the folder are not included during the next backup.

Example:

Monday – Perform the first incremental backup of selected files and / or folders using a file set with the Incremental option enabled.

Tuesday – Perform another backup with the backup file set you created Monday. Only files that have changed since Monday’s backup are backed up.

Wednesday – Perform another backup with the backup file set you created Monday. Only files that have changed since Tuesday’s incremental backup are backed up.

Advantages:

•  Backup time is faster than full backups.
•  Incremental backups require less disk, tape, or network drive space.
•  You can keep several versions of the same files on different backup sets.

Disadvantages:

•  In order to restore all the files, you must have all of the incremental backups available.
•  It may take longer to restore a specific file since you must search more than one backup set to find the latest version of a file.

Differential Backup:

A differential backup provides a backup of files that have changed since a full backup was performed. A differential backup typically saves only the files that are different or new since the last full backup, but this can vary in different backup programs. Together, a full backup and a differential backup include all the files on your computer, changed and unchanged.

Example:

Monday – Perform a full backup and save the file set.

Tuesday – Perform a differential backup using the same file set. All files that have changed since the full backup are backed up in the differential backup.

Wednesday – Perform a differential backup using the same file set. All the files that have changed since Monday’s full backup are backed up.

Advantages:

• Differential backups require even less disk, tape, or network drive space than incremental backups.
• Backup time is faster than full or incremental backups.

Disadvantages:

• Restoring all your files may take considerably longer since you may have to restore both the last differential and full backup.
• Restoring an individual file may take longer since you have to locate the file on either the differential or full backup.

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