Protecting your data is one of the most important things you can do to ensure business continuity. With threats like hardware failures, ransomware, and accidental deletion all putting your data at risk, backing up your files provides peace of mind no matter what’s lurking around the corner.
With a range of different backup options available, it’s important to work out which method best suits your needs. Full backup is one of several backup solutions, along with incremental backup and differential backup. But what does full backup mean and how does it compare to the alternatives?
What is full backup?
As the name suggests, full backup involves producing a complete copy of all your data. Just like how a full moon shines in the night sky, a full backup creates an exact replica of every file, folder, and setting in your system to ensure nothing is left hidden in the shadows.
Here’s an example of how that works in practice:
- You perform a full backup on Sunday, capturing all your data at that moment.
- If you run another full backup on Monday, a completely new copy of the data is created, even if no changes have been made to individual files.
In short, creating a full backup is the most comprehensive and straightforward way of protecting and recovering your data.
Full backup vs. other backup types
Given the simplicity of performing a full backup, you might be wondering why you would ever choose an alternative way of protecting your data, such as differential backup or incremental backup.
There are several reasons why a full backup may not be best suited to your needs.
1. High storage requirements
A full backup creates a fresh copy of your data every time you back it up. While this ensures maximum protection for your files, this process also uses significant amounts of storage space.
Here’s an example:
- You perform a full backup on Monday, creating a 100GB copy of all your data.
- If you perform another full backup on Tuesday, this requires an additional 100GB of storage, and so on.
By contrast, a differential backup will only save changes made to your data since the last full backup. This means that if you lose your data, you need two files instead of one: the last full backup and the most recent differential backup. The need for two files means the restoration process takes longer, but it is also less storage intensive.
Anincremental backup works similarly to a differential backup but uses even less storage. With an incremental backup, you only save changes made since the last incremental backup. This means additional files are needed when you recover your data.
2. Longer backup time
Given the large quantities of data associated with a full backup, it can take a long time to replicate all your files. In some cases, this can reduce your system performance while the backup is taking place.
Using differential backup or incremental backup alleviates these concerns by only saving changes to your files since the last full backup.
3. Redundant copies
If you are only working on a few files each day, performing a full backup every time can be an inefficient way of protecting your data. Saving multiple full backups consumes vast amounts of redundant storage, creating unnecessary costs and storage management processes.
Again, differential backups and incremental backups address this issue by preserving any changes to your data in combination with your last full backup. This ensures full protection of your data while maximising storage efficiency and minimising costs.
When to use full backup
Performing a full backup provides the highest level of protection for your data. For critical files that you can’t afford to live without, a full backup is always the safest option.
If you need to recover your data urgently, a full backup also provides the fastest possible response. By only using one file, a full backup saves time compared to the additional files needed to restore from a differential backup or incremental backup.
How to use full backup
There are several best practices to follow when implementing a full backup:
- Use automated backup software: Scheduling full backups during non-peak hours helps to reduce system impact.
- Combine with other backups: Running differential or incremental backups in combination with full backups will reduce storage demands while protecting your data.
- Store backups offsite: Even the strongest backup can’t protect your data from physical threats like fires or theft. Save your backups in cloud storage or remote locations to ensure it’s protected.
- Test your backups regularly: Performing recovery tests will identify any issues in your data integrity or functionality. These routine procedures will prevent potential headaches when you come to restore your files.
Conclusion
In terms of simplicity and reliability, there is no substitute for performing a full backup. By duplicating all of your data in one go, you can ensure that recovery is fast and straightforward.
If you have the flexibility to deploy multiple backup methods, combining regular full backups with differential or incremental backups will help to lower storage costs. However, when the time comes to recover your lost data, the latest full backup will always be your first step towards a full recovery.