Apart from creating Full backups, you can also create Differential and/or Incremental backups. So what’s the difference between them? Why do they exist? Which should you use?
Differential Vs Incremental Backup.
A full backup includes everything on your computer. All the hard drive partitions, the operating system, installed applications together with all your data.
Continually making full backups will quickly fill up whatever device you’re using to store the backups on.
However most of the files contained within the full backup won’t have changed. Once they’re backed up, they really don’t need backing up over and over again.
Differential and incremental backups seek to remedy this issue by only including the files that have actually changed in some way. In this way, the backup file is much reduced in size.
How Differential Backups Work.
A differential backup will backup everything that has changed since the last full backup. Differentials totally ignore any other intervening types of backups. They only refer back to the last full backup.
Over time, differential backups get larger and larger.
If left unchecked, they can actual become larger in size than the full backup on which they’re based.
With differential backups, there is a lot of duplication of files that have previously been included in a backup.
How Incremental Backups Work.
Incremental backups, by contrast, only include in the backup what has changed since the last backup was made. That backup could either be a full or an incremental backup. Generally they will ignore differential backups.
Since incremental backups only include files that haven’t previously been backed up, they can remain small in size.
That makes for very efficient use of the space available on your storge device.
Space Saving.
When it comes to space saving, differential vs incremental there is only ever going to be one winner. If your backup device is short on capacity, then using a Full plus Incremental backup scheme is the way to go.
Restoring Your Computer.
When it comes to restoring your computer, differential Vs incremental is a different story.
Differential backups are both quicker and possibly safer than incremental backups.
That’s because you only need the last full backup and the latest differential backup.
Whereas with an incremental backup scheme, you’d need the last full backup and all the subsequent incremental backups.
Recovering Your Files.
Differential backups contain a lot of file duplication. Whereas Incremental backups don’t duplicate anything.
Therefore when comparing differential Vs incremental backups, you’d have to say that differentials are safer because if one of them fails, you’re likely to be able to your files from a different one.
That’s not so with incremental backups. If one should fail, then it’s contents (your files) are effectively gone.
Which Should You Use?
Differential Vs Incremental backups isn’t as straightforward a comparison as you might think.
Efficient use of the available storage space is always going to be important for home users. On the other hand, when you need to recover your computer, you need your backups to work.
On your home PC, if you have enough storage space on your backup device, then use differential backups. But do keep an eye on their file size.
If space is tight, then you really don’t have much choice. It’ll have to be incremental backups.
Combine Onsite With Cloud Backups.
A good strategy for making sure that you don’t lose any important data would be to combine your on site backups with cloud storage.
Microsoft OneDrive will give you up to 5 GB of storage space for free and with Google Drive you get up to 15 GB for free.
That’s not a huge amount of space, but maybe enough to cover the most important files.
Keep Up With Home Computer Guides.
All the latest guides and articles published on At Home Computer delivered to your inbox.
No account needed, just add your email address.
