Backup Methods
This section explains the most common backup methods, their advantages and disadvantages, as well as important safety measures and backup strategies.- Continuous Full Backup
- Full Backup (Data Mirroring)
- Incremental Backup
- Differential Backup
- Reverse Incremental Backup
- Security Measures
- Backup Strategy
Continuous Full Backup
With this method, all data is always copied into a new, separate backup folder. The backup folder is an exact copy of the source. See guide 'Full Backup'.Advantages
- Backed-up data is immediately available when needed.
- Restoration is straightforward and fast.
- Compared to incremental or differential backups, time and storage requirements are higher.
Full Backup (Data Mirroring)
New and modified data is copied into the same backup folder, and missing data in the backup folder is deleted. The backup folder is an exact copy of the source. See guide 'Data Mirroring'.Advantages
- Backed-up data is immediately available when needed.
- Restoration is straightforward and fast.
- Compared to continuous full backup, time requirements are lower.
- Storage requirements are higher than with incremental or differential backups.
Incremental Backup
With an incremental backup, only modified or new data since the last full or incremental backup is saved in a new backup folder. See guide 'Incremental Backup'.Advantages
- Time and storage requirements are low.
- Restoration is complex and time-consuming, as you need the full backup and all subsequent incremental or differential backups.
Differential Backup
All modified and new data since the last full backup is saved in a new backup folder. See guide 'Differential Backup'.Advantages
- Restoration is easier and faster than with an incremental backup, as only the full backup and the last differential backup are needed.
- Time and storage requirements are higher than with incremental backup.
Reverse Incremental Backup
This method always creates a full backup in the same backup folder. Deleted or overwritten files are moved to a separate, continuous backup folder.Advantages
- Backed-up data is immediately available when needed.
- Restoration is straightforward and fast.
- Time requirements are higher than with incremental or differential backup.
Security Measures
To optimally protect your backups, you should observe the following measures:- For maximum security, use full backups on regularly rotated storage media.
- Use at least two different storage media for your backups.
- Avoid writing multiple backups consecutively to the same medium, as a failure could result in data loss over an extended period.
- For critical business data, store a full backup in a secure location (e.g. a bank vault) to prevent loss from theft or fire.
- Protect your storage media from unauthorized access using encryption software such as VeraCrypt.
Backup Strategy
This backup strategy requires a total of 5 storage media.From Monday to Friday, a continuous full backup is performed daily on a separate storage medium:
- Monday: Full backup to medium 1
- Tuesday: Full backup to medium 2
- Wednesday: Full backup to medium 3
- Thursday: Full backup to medium 4
- Friday: Full backup to medium 5
This way, you have access to the daily backup data of the past 4 weeks if needed. With the backup option 'Create backup generations', you can define the number of backups and adjust it to the size of your storage media.