The purpose of most backup policies is to create a copy of d...

The purpose of most backup policies is to create a copy of data so that a particular file or application may be restored after data is lost, corrupted, deleted or a disaster strikes. Thus, backup is not the goal, but rather it is one means to accomplish the goal of protecting data. Testing backups is just as important as backing up and restoring data. Backup applications have long offered several types of backup operations. Two of the most common backup types are described below.

I. This operation will result in copying only the data that has changed since the last backup operation of any type. The modified time stamp on files is typically used and compared to the time stamp of the last backup. Backup applications track and record the date and time that backup operations occur in order to track files modified since these operations. Because this backup will only copy data since the last backup of any type, it may be run as often as desired, with only the most recent changes stored.

II. This type of backup makes a copy of all data to another set of media, which can be tape, disk or a DVD or CD. The primary advantage to performing this backup during every operation is that a complete copy of all data is available with a single set of media. This results in a minimal time to restore data, a metric known as a Recovery Time Objective (RTO).

The backup types I and II are, respectivelly,