Incremental vs Differential vs Full Backup

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Side by side comparison

Incremental Backup

Differential Backup

Full Backup
What is it

A backup of all changed and new files since the last backup

A backup of all changed and new files since the last full backup

A backup of all files in a specified backup set or job
Backup Speed

Fastest

Faster

Slowest
Restore Speed

Slowest

Faster

Fastest
Storage Needed

Least

More

Most
Advantages
  • Faster backups
  • Less storage space used.
  • No duplicate files

 
  • Faster & simpler restores then incremental backup
  • Only needs the first full backup and last differential backup to restore
  • Fastest restore
  • Only needs the last full backup set to restore
Disadvantages
  • Slowest restores
  • Needs all backup sets full + all increments to restores
  • Slower backups
  • Still stores a lot of duplicate files
  • Needs the most storage space
  • Inefficient storage with a lots of duplicates stored