Backup of vital business data is very important for more reasons than one. The three ways in which backup can be performed are as follows:
- Full backup
- Differential backup
- Incremental backup
Full backup
Complete data in a computer is backed up in this method. Periodical backup is done on the entire data on a single set of media. Restoring back up of all the data is easily done by relying on the last backup tape.
In this method, however, a good deal of backup is rendered redundant as most of the system files rarely change. This method is also time consuming and also backing up static information is a waste of time.
Differential backup
In this method only the changes made in the data of the existing data are backed up. While this method is performed the full back up media and the latest differential media are required. This system requires much less time than the full backup. This is because the differential tape contains the last full backup done plus the changes made to it currently.
Incremental backup
In this method all files where there are changes since last backup will be stored. Here, the last full back up along with all incremental backup done is required. The time taken in this backup is much shorter than the other two methods.
