Types of Backup, Full backup, Incremental backup, Differential backup and Copy backup

As a CCNA Security certified Network Security Engineer, you must know what are the common types of back up technologies.

Following list includes the types of basic data backup technologies.

Full backup: Full backup is a type of back up which backs up all data files without considering that we already have a backup of the data which we are backing up. After backing-up, archive bit is turned off to indicate that the file was backed up. The "Archive Ready" bit is a file system attribute used by Microsoft operating systems to indicate that the file has been backed up or not.

Incremental backup: Incremental backup is a type of backup which backs up all data that was changed since the last backup. Incremental backup will use the "Archive Ready" to find that we already have a backup of the data. Since only changed files are backed up, Incremental backup takes the least amount of time to perform the backup and less storage space to store the backup. After backing-up, archive bit is turned off to indicate that the file was backed up. The "Archive Ready" bit is a file system attribute used by Microsoft operating systems to indicate that the file has been backed up or not.

Differential backup: Differential backup which backs up all data that has changed since the last full backup. Differential backup will refer the "Archive Ready" bit to find the file has been changed, but after backup is performed, the "Archive Ready" is not changed. Differential backup will include the same backup as the previous differential backup plus any additional files that have changed after the last Differential backup.

Copy backup: Copy backup is to take a backup without disturbing the regular backup schedule. Copy backup does not change the "Archive Ready" bit. Since it will not affect incremental or differential backups schedules.