Full Backup

A full backup is a backup of every file on a file system, whether that file has changed or not.

The alternatives to a full backup are incremental backup and differential backup.

A full backup takes longer to accomplish and requires the most storage space on the backup media, but it also provides the quickest restore times.

A full backup should be performed weekly or monthly on production systems, along with daily differential backups. It would be best to build full backups at all time, since they are the most complete and are self-reliant. On the other hand, the total time it takes to execute full backups often stops us from using this backup mechanism. Full backups are normally limited to a weekly or monthly timetable, even though the escalating pace and storage capacity of backup media is making quick full backups a more practical proposal.

A full backup should also be performed before any major planned changes to a system. However, full backups have a noteworthy security concern. Every full backup encloses a complete replica of the data. If the backup media were to be illegitimately accessed or stolen, the unauthorized person would then have admittance to your complete data.

The only advantage with full backup mechanism is that the restoration process takes minimum time. The disadvantages are that the backup process is very time consuming and the storage space requirements are quite high.