UNDERSTANDING BACKUP TYPES

WHEN YOU’RE CHOOSING BACKUP SOFTWARE IT’S WORTH UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF BACKUPS.

An image is an exact copy of an entire drive or partition, including all installed programs and system files. If you need to reinstall Windows, you can boot from the image file and avoid having to reinstall all your programs and reconfigure your Windows settings. Note that you can’t use an image to restore your system on a different PC.

Images are very large and take a long time to create, so you won’t want to make one every day. For everyday backups, you’ll only want to copy the most important data on your PC – your documents, photos and music, for example. There are several types of regular backup: * Full backup: a copy of all selected data.

* Differential backup: a copy of the data that has changed or been added since the last full backup.

* Incremental backup: a copy of the data that has changed since the last backup, whether that was full backup or incremental. Each differential backup will be larger than the last, but to restore your system you’ll only need the full backup and the latest differential one. Incremental backup files are smaller, but to restore your system you’ll need your full backup as well as all subsequent incremental ones, which takes longer.

IMAGES ARE VERY LARGE AND TAKE A LONG TIME TO CREATE, SO YOU WON’T WANT TO MAKE ONE EVERY DAY. FOR EVERYDAY BACKUPS, YOU’LL ONLY WANT TO COPY THE MOST IMPORTANT DATA ON YOUR PC – YOUR MUSIC, FOR EXAMPLE.