Backup Explanations?

rjpear

Ok folks.. Please help me figure out the difference between a " Differentia "l backup and an " Incremental " backup. I know one doesn't touch the archive flag... Anyone have the Skinny on this topic..and maybe an easy way to remember them.. I get them CONFUSED!

Thanks for your time..

Rob

Starter

This trick worked for me:

Differential backup is really the opposite of what it sounds. You don't back up the difference; instead you back up everything. Thus it's easy to restore.

Example
You do a normal backup every monday night, then do differential backup from tuesday to sunday. The archive bit doesn't get turned off on Tuesday so you would back up the same thing on Wed. Thur. through Sunday. Thus, if you had to restore your backup, say on Thursday morning, you would only need Monday's Normal backup tape and Wednesdays differential backup tape. If you had been doing an incremental backup you would need Tuesdays tape along with Wed.'s tape and the Normal backup tape from Monday.

rjpear

If one does a FULL backup on Monday Night.. Then I assume all the ARCHIVE FLAGS on ALL the FILES at that point are "cleared" or Unchecked in Win? Then you you create or modify a file on TUE that ARCHIVE attrib gets marked or checked again.. BUT what does the differential backup do? Backup all with the Achive flag checked or unchecked?
Then will the next FULL backup ignore the flags and backup all ..and upon completeion clear the archive flag from all files starting again??

..Im getting dizzy...

Ricka182

This guide from TechTutorials has helped me understand backups......

rjpear

Thanks..I will Check it out!!!