Differential and incremental backups are "smart backup" types that save time and disk space by only backing up changed files. But they differ significantly in how they do it and how useful the result is for data protection purposes.
There are three primary data backup strategies - full backup, differential backup, and incremental backup.
Full backups comprise entire data backup sets, regardless of already existing backups or data change circumstances.
Differential backups comprise data files that have changed since the most recently completed full backup.
Incremental backups comprise data files that have changed since the most recently completed incremental backup.
Let's explore the backup process behind all three approaches further. ...read more!
