Full Backup
Full backup is the original version of the backup procedure. It is taking a complete copy of the data every single time. Due to the fact that a full backup takes up a complete copy of all the data it tends to make the restoration procedure quicker than if incremental backup or differential backup were used. The full backup is the optimal backup strategy for a data integrity but their downside is that they take the longest to be done.
As long as there is time and space available to do the backup as a full backup then it is the ideal strategy, as a restoration can be done from one backup file, even if corruption has occurred in other backup files. Heightened security is required with full backups, as if someone gains illegal access to them then they will be able to read all the data, with incremental backup or differential backup this is less likely as the data is only partially present. Generally if there is going to be a large system change it is wise to do a full backup.
Advantages of a full backup
- Restoration of the backup is the quickest with this method.
Disadvantages of a full backup
- Backup time takes the longest of all the strategies.
- Full backup uses the most amount of disk space.
Improvements which some software vendors do to mitigate the disadvantages
Most vendors support the usage of compression technology in the form of zip. Also most vendors give you the ability to set the compression ratio (how small to try and make the zip file), and setting this higher tends to lead to a smaller zip file though it will take longer. Note also that how much space is saved by zipping depends very much on the data being zipped, for example jpg will tend to not be compressed much as they are already compressed, while documents will tend to show the most compression. Most vendors also support the ability to password encrypt the backup files, this will lessen the chance of the backup being read by a hacker or thief.