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What is the difference between full, incremental and differential backup?

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Question added by Salman Ahmed , Sr. System Engineer , Alpha Data
Date Posted: 2016/08/29
Mohamed Achref Saidi
by Mohamed Achref Saidi , Technician , Ange Gardien

Full Backup:A complete backup of every file

Differential Backup:  Creates copies of all the files that are changed from the ones in the full backup

Incremental Backup:Copying changed files since the last full and differential backup

Incremental backup only backs up data that has their archive bit set on. Upon backing up, the archive bit is set off.  

Differential backups will save data that have their archive bit set on and when done does not set it off.

Differential backups are faster than incremental backups for small databases.

Incremental backups are more beneficial for larger data sets.

Full Backup is all files backup. Incremental Backup is if you did full backup in Sunday incremental backup make on Monday contain only files that changes since last full backup.

Noman Abdul Hadi Memon
by Noman Abdul Hadi Memon , IT Specialist , Wael Fouad Jamjoom Co. For Umrah

Full Backup

A complete backup of everything you want to backup.

 

Differential Backup

The backup software looks at which files have changed since you last did a full backup. Then creates copies of all the files that are different from the ones in the full backup.

If you do a differential backup more than once, it will copy all the files, or parts of files that have changed since the last full backup, even if you already have identical copies of those files in a previous differential backup.For restoring all the data, you will only need the the last full backup, and the last differential backup.

 

Incremental Backup

The backup software creates copies of all the files, or parts of files that have changed since previous backups of any type (full, differential or incremental).For example if you did a full backup on Sunday. An incremental backup made on Monday, would only contain files changed since Sunday, and an incremental backup on Tuesday, would only contain files changed since Monday, and so on.

Ahmed Aboulrous
by Ahmed Aboulrous , Infrastructure Sr. Lead , Vodafone - Egypt

Full Backup               : This type of backup makes a copy of all data to another set of media.Incremental Backup    :  Copying only the data that has changed since the last backup operation of any type.A differential backup   : Operation is similar to an incremental the first time it is performed, in that it will copy all data changed from the previous backup. However, each time it is run afterwards, it will continue to copy all data changed since the previous full backup

Mustansir Amin
by Mustansir Amin , Senior Engineer IT support Operation & Infrastructure Projects , Gulftainer Company Limited

A full backup is complete backup of everything. A increamental backup is creates copy of all the data which is changed previously Differential backup Takes only data which changed from first full back up

Faisal Bin Mohammed
by Faisal Bin Mohammed , RQ1 , RSAF

Full backups

full backup is exactly what the name implies. It is a full copy of your entire data set. Although full backups arguably provide the best protection, most organizations only use them on a periodic basis because they are time consuming, and often require a large number of tapes or disk.

Because full backups are so time consuming,

 incremental backups were introduced as a way of decreasing the amount of time that it takes to do a backup. Incremental backups only backup the data that has changed since the previous backup.

 

A full backup is a backup of all files or data in a specified backup set. It is very time consuming while taking backup but faster while restoring.

An incremental backup is a backup of all changed and new files or data since the last backup. It is faster backup method but slow while restoring.

And differential backup is a backup of all changed and new files of data since last full backup. It is slower backup method but faster than incremental while restoring back.

Tabrez Pasha
by Tabrez Pasha , Intune Senior Engineer / Technical Lead , ABINBEV

I have given the below description about full, incremental and differenctial backup to my management. 

 

Full Backup:A complete backup of everything you want to backup.Restoration is fast, since you only need one set of backup data.The backing up process is slow.High storage requirements.

Differential Backup:The backup software looks at which files have changed since you last did a full backup. Then creates copies of all the files that are different from the ones in the full backup.If you do a differential backup more than once, it will copy all the files, or parts of files that have changed since the last full backup, even if you already have identical copies of those files in a previous differential backup.For restoring all the data, you will only need the the last full backup, and the last differential backup.Faster to create than a full backup.Restoration is faster than using incremental backup.Not as much storage needed as in a full backup.Restoration is slower than using a full backup.Creating a differential backup is slower than creating an incremental backup.

Incremental Backup:The backup software creates copies of all the files, or parts of files that have changed since previous backups of any type (full, differential or incremental).For example if you did a full backup on Sunday. An incremental backup made on Monday, would only contain files changed since Sunday, and an incremental backup on Tuesday, would only contain files changed since Monday, and so on.This method is the fastest when creating a backup.The least storage space is needed.Restoring from incremental backups is the slowest because it may require several sets of data to fully restore all the data. For example if you had a full backup and six incremental backups. To restore the data would require you to process the full backup and all six incremental backups.

Rania Salama
by Rania Salama , IT Manager , Sadat university

Full Backup is a complete backup of all files on the designated hard drive.

An Incremental Backup is a backup of all changed files since the last Full or Incremental backup.

Differential Backup is a backup of all changed files since the last Full Backup.

Ahmad Jamal Saed  Hamed
by Ahmad Jamal Saed Hamed , System Administrator , John Wiley & Sons(Atypon Systems Inc,)

Full backup copying all data. Differential backup copying the differences since last full. Incremental backup data since last full or differential backup.

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