Whats the difference between differential and incremental backups (and why should I care)?
Both differential and incremental backups are “smart” backups that save time and disk space by only backing up changed files. But they differ significantly in how they do it, and how useful the result is. A full backup created from within Windows, of course, backs up all the files in a partition or on a disk by copying all disk sectors with data to the backup image file. Creating a full backup for unknown or damaged filesystems Acronis True Image copies all sectors to the image file, whether or not the sector contains data. This is the simplest form of backup, but it is also the most time-consuming, space-intensive and the least flexible. Typically full backups are only done once a week and are part of an overall backup plan. Sometimes a full backup is done after a major change of the data on the disk, such as an operating system upgrade or software install. The relatively long intervals between backups mean that if something goes wrong, a lot of data is going to be lost. That’s why it
