About incremental backups, and compared to full backups
First, Can someone please tell me, or link me to something, that details how incremental backups work, (especially compared to full backups)? I am looking to simply learn about the process.
2nd, can someone tell me what takes more time? A full backup or an incremental backup? (Assume all other settings are the same.)
- Se connecter pour poster des commentaires
I always use daily incremental backups and start a new sequence off weekly.
As Pat L says, the first image in an incremental is the same as a full (It's a complete image of the disc or partitions selected). It takes say 10 or 15 minutes or more depending on the size of data being backed up. You then run the same backup (incremental) again say the following day. This time only the bits that have changed get backed up and this backup takes only a couple of minute. And so on each time you run the backup. After say 5 or 6 runs like this it is wise to start a new sequence off by creating a new incremental backup with a new name.
To restore you can pick any backup in the sequence and restore to that date or time.
The differential backup is similar, but here each backup is always compared to the initial "full" image of the sequence rather than the last in the chain. The downside to differentials is that each differential backup is larger and takes longer than the last one in the sequence. The upside is that they don't rely on a complete "chain" to restore and are considered "safer". If one backup in an incremental chain is missing or corrupt you can not restore past that point as each builds on the last. If one in a differential chain is missing or corrupt you just pick another as only the initial image and one other is needed.
- Se connecter pour poster des commentaires