What Backup Type Do I Want: Full, Incremental, or Differential?

[@askleonotenboom]

Confusing terms for important concepts. Let me know. Did this help sort it out?

[@msun12000]

Not wishing to complicate things further but a differential backup plan has advantages if your personal folder/file structures change by moving and/or renaming files. Otherwise a full restore can result in duplicates and unwanted deleted items returning. So I prefer to mirror or synchronise personal data using several backup media in rotation. This is normally much faster, reserving e.g. full monthly or bi-monthly backups for the whole operating system as a separate job using bootable backup media.

[@interproservice]

Hi, if a make a full copy and a year full of incremental backups, to restore do I need go through 365 daily saved backups or the software knows and will do it itself'?

[@askleonotenboom]

@@interproserviceThe software knows. I don't recommend a year. If ANY of the incrementals is damaged, the restore cannot go beyond that point. I like monthly fulls with daily incrementals as a fine compromise.

[@kenm.6230]

Great explanation. The only caveat I might add concerning incremental backups is that restoring from an incremental backup relies on ALL previous incremental backups being valid. If any one is corrupted for some reason the restore will fail. I do follow your suggestion as to doing a full system backup once a month but then add a differential once each week. This is Macrium's Grandfather, Father, Son template. That way you also have the ability to go back to the last differential if you had a problem with an incremental. The question is: how often or likely is it to have an invalid incremental backup? I don't know if this is really something you should worry about.

[@dashard7746]

Thank you so much, for explaining the differences between incremental and differential. It has been a term I been grappling with for many years, and never seem to find anyone who could explain it simply and understandably. Once again thank you so much for taking the time to make this video.

[@dinkarraor]

Thanks a lot for the crystal clear explanation. It made me clearly understand between the different methods of backup. Great job

[@Budfrog23]

This has really helped me - thanks. I have now set a full backup monthly - keeping 2 backups plus and incremental backup daily keeping 62 backups. The only thing I find confusing is that on the day/time of the full backup and incremental backup is also scheduled when it's not really needed - I'm asuming as it is at the same time as the full backup then it won't run.

[@interproservice]

Hi, but when you restore you need to go through 62 backups individually? Like restore a full backup then day 1, 2, 3, 4 and last day (todays backup).?

[@Budfrog23]

@@interproservice I've never needed to restore a backup but I presume you just locate the most recent incremental or full backup. I do it for peace of mind more than anything else.

[@petern.9923]

I like to make an image when the pc is fresh as a baseline. After that I use incrementals. This way I can use the first full instead of a new, clean reinstall.

[@JM_Hansei]

Thank you sir. This was very useful and illustrative.

[@acreguy3156]

Thanks, Leo! I'm not confused anymore👍.

[@johnnyz7752]

Using your examples, if you create a full backup on Sunday, and an incremental pack up on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, then, to restore all of that data, you have to restore from the full back up, and each incremental back up, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. If you use the differential back up method, then to restore your computer, you only have to restore from the full back up from Sunday, and the most recent differential back up. You don’t have to restore from each of the individual days. That sounds easier to me.

[@askleonotenboom]

Most programs let you pick the day to restore to (say Wednesday) and transparently handle which incrementals and fulls are needed.

[@JimE6243]

Thanks Leo. The free version of Macrium Reflect will only do differential backups from what it tells me. So I do differential backups once a week. Keep in mind I use my computer for basically information and research so it is not a work tool. Been retired for 20 years. The question is, am I missing something by doing this? What I really need a backup for is my system, pictures, email and the like. Thanks. JimE

[@askleonotenboom]

You might want to include something like OneDrive for day-to-day stuff, or File History to an external drive. More here: askleo.com/how-to-back-up-windows-10/

[@ngptl]

It's complete understanding of backups

[@NoEgg4u]

I am assuming that the backup software keeps a database (of sorts) in some file that is part of the backup? Consider the following scenario: After Sunday night's full backup, I then, on Monday morning, intentionally delete file "dangerous-file.txt", and I then do an incremental backup on Monday night. On Tuesday, my storage drive fails. I replace it with a new drive. I then do a restore from my full+incremental backup. Will the "dangerous-file.txt" get restored? That file was present during the full backup, but was absent during the subsequent incremental backup. So if the backup software restores everything form the full backup, and then restores and overwrites files that have been added or modified in the incremental backup, then it would seem that the "dangerous-file.txt" would be mistakenly resurrected. But that would be a major issue with all kinds of files getting restored that should not get restored, because the user deleted them. So the backup software must be maintaining a database on what files disappeared from the time the full backup was run, to now when the incremental backup is run? And that database would have to be implanted into the backup archive file(s), itself. I have never run a test to see if a restore would mistakenly restore files. And I have never seen any reports or reviews or anything that mentions that backup software handles this circumstance properly. Has anyone tested this?

[@veronicadiaz9454]

thank you very much for your video

[@mahnazjahanbakhsh6405]

thank you

[@julianmanjarres1998]

If i delete files and a backup is performed, will an incremental backup exclude the files I deleted on that backup?

[@askleonotenboom]

If I understand what you're asking, no. An incremental backup won't backup a file that's no longer there, but it won't cause the file to be removed from prior backups.

[@NickCassimon]

So can a full backup be used to copy to a new bigger hard disk to replace the old one ? Like a clone disk ? Thanks

[@askleonotenboom]

Yes.

[@marioselva9451]

Hi Leo , I just got new with two 20 TB Hard drives from Seagate. I am planning to move all my flash drives , old external drives to one of the new Seagate drive and make the other new Seagate drive hold a copy of it . However since my procedure is incremental ones I get date in any of the flash or external drive , I move it to the Seagate drive and the copy drive or image. I thought of incremental software backup and I schedule it in Dailey or hourly base that it will make a copy of the new stuff not the whole thing . One option is to buy 3rd party software like Acronis or maybe there is a free software that do it . Can you help me on that

[@HoundDogMech]

I'll bet U won't answer this because this video is over 1 year old but: Does the full backup do the same thing as a Clone where I can just remove the corrupt drive and replace it with the clone?

[@askleonotenboom]

Yes, a full image backup is perfect for drive replacement.

[@username40000]

Hi Leo. I'm coming from a mac and trying to get something similar to Time Machine. I just bought an external 1TB hdd that I would like to basically clone my 1TB OS drive to, adding to it every day. Do you know any software that does this? I'm guessing I would need to do a full backup and then daily incremental backups? On mac that's all I would have to do but on Windows, do I need to a full backup again at some point? Do I overwrite my old full+incremental backups with the new full? I just want a clone of my internal system drive without doing a full backup every day, possible?! Thanks

[@askleonotenboom]

I *WISH* there were a Time Machine equivalent for PCs. I'm surprised there isn't. I have a ton of articles on my website that talk about backing up, but I'll start you with this one: askleo.com/how-to-back-up-windows-10/

[@adiebarrett]

If it's any use, I'm on Windows where I use Bvckup2, which is straightforward and replicates folders-to-folders (or drive-to-drive) and which does whole or incremental (possibly differential too). It isn't an image backup, so you can't restore Windows. But at its price point, and factoring in my age and ability (I don't quite understand Raid or networks for the home...) plus Raids cost a lot), Bvckup2 been a lifesaver for me.

[@username40000]

@@adiebarrett Hey thanks for the input! I should mention what I ended up doing, I bought macrium reflect and use that for backing up windows, it does incremental daily, differential weekly and a full backup monthly (I think). I don't know whether it works or not because I thankfully haven't needed to use it. Im pretty sure I'll be able to restore windows with that. I also use freefilesync to backup/mirror folders which sounds like what bvckup2 does. Quite happy with it and can't beat free! Thanks again for the suggestion. Time machine is still the best!

[@Referee006]

Leo, what is the difference between a clone copy and an image copy?

[@askleonotenboom]

askleo.com/difference-between-clone-image/

[@cowsgoloka]

What kind of the three back-ups1 the OS supplied with the system comes with like windows 7 basic ? Can we tweak it or it's fixed to one kind

[@askleonotenboom]

Windows Built In does full backups, and to the best of my knowledge it's not tweak-able. I strongly recommend using third party tools like EaseUS Todo or Macrium Reflect. They're supported and give much more visibility into the process. Their free versions are fine.

[@MaxRiley]

@askleonotenboom If I were to perform a full backup on sunday and the next backup is a differential one on friday, would I be able to restore my system say to wednesday? Thanks

[@askleonotenboom]

No. Sunday or Friday.

[@MaxRiley]

​@@askleonotenboomthank you for your kind reply. Also, if I may, what are the advantages and disadvantages between forever incremental with or without synthetic, please? I have a home PC that I use for personal use and work (translations) and I just need my disk C with windows and programs to be airways efficient and working and have the chance to granularly restore to previous day or so if the system presents issues. Thanks

[@askleonotenboom]

@@MaxRiley It's normally a disk space and resiliency exercise. Say you have a years worth of daily incrementals. If one of them in the middle fails (you lose it, the file's damages, whatever), then you can lose it and all subsequent incrementals. That's why I generally recommend a monthly full and daily incrementals as a reasonable tradeoff for most people.

[@askleonotenboom]

This article covers it as well: askleo.com/full-incremental-differential/ & kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGKpe4Zjf6p_b6s

[@MaxRiley]

@@askleonotenboom it's this same video, buddy

[@Referee006]

Leo, if I want to have a complete backup of my computer including the files and the apps that I have added on my computer how can I do that? In other words, how can I create a mirror image of my computer in a backup? Thanks.

[@askleonotenboom]

That's a full image backup. You use image backup tools like Macrium Reflect, EaseUS Todo, or others.

[@Referee006]

@@askleonotenboom Leo, thanks.

[@Mangokyaw]

still confusing and dont understand.

[@chaosordeal294]

You really didn't answer which one I want.

[@askleonotenboom]

Correct. It depends on your needs -- there is no single "this is what you want" answer.