Full Backup

Full Backup

A full backup is simply that: a complete backup of every single file.

The advantage of such a backup is that files are easily found when needed. Since full backups include all data on the hard drive, you do not have to search through several tapes to find the files you need to restore. In case you need to restore the entire system, all of the most current information can be found on the last backup tape.

The disadvantage is that doing nothing but full backups leads to redundancy which wastes both media and time. A backup strategy would normally include a combination of full, incremental and/or differential backups.