
A disk image contains every bit of data on the drive and offers stronger protection since it enables you to recreate the whole system after a hard drive failure. What's a Disk Image Backup?Ī step further than the simple copying of files is copying the entire hard drive, including system files, as what's called a disk image disk image. With incremental, you need the latest full backup and all the intermediary backup data to restore a file to its original state, whereas, with differential backup, all you need is the last set of differential backup data and the first full one. Incremental backup saves system resources by only backing up changes in files from the last incremental backup, and differential backup saves all changes from the last full backup.

The first should be obvious-all the data you've selected for backup is copied in its entirety. More granular options include whether backups are full, incremental, or differential. Usually, you also have the option to tell the backup service to monitor your drive for changed or new files to back up as they occur. Most backup software lets you schedule scans of your hard drive for new and changed files daily, weekly, monthly, or continually (or at least, say, every 15 minutes). Should you lose the local files, either through disaster or simply by deleting or overwriting them, you can just restore them from the saved copies.įor this to work, the copies of your files must be updated regularly. That storage can be another drive, an external drive, a network-attached storage device (NAS), a rewritable disc, or the cloud-meaning someone else's servers. The concept behind backup software is pretty simple: Make a copy of your files on storage separate from your main hard drive. These features and services are all well worth using, but they have some limitations, lacking some of the extra benefits you get from running standalone backup software. Both also offer some cloud backup, with iCloud and OneDrive, as well. Windows 10 and Windows 11 include a File History feature and a full disk backup feature, and macOS includes its Time Machine software. Backup software and services do just that.īoth Windows and macOS have beefed up their built-in backup tools in recent years.

Your business documents and your files, photos, videos, and music all deserve to be protected. Glitches happen, and so do hacks, theft, and physical damage to a device.

