Thursday, November 29, 2007

Security: Backups: Normal vs Incremental vs Daily vs Differential - and the Archive Bit

Which backup types back up selected files and clear the archive bit in Windows Backup? (Select TWO.)
1. Copy
2. Incremental
3. >>Normal
4. Daily
5. >>Differential

Explanation : A normal backup backs up the selected files and clears the archive bit. The archive bit identifies whether or not a file has changed since the last time it was backed up. Some backup types filter the files to back up based on the archive bit, backing up only those files with the archive bit set.

An incremental backup also backs up selected files, but is limited to only those files with the archive bit set. It clears the archive bit when it runs, so that only files that have changed since the last full or incremental backup are backed up. One potential disadvantage is that when you recover from multiple incremental backups, you must recover from all incremental backups made since the last base (normal) backup in the order in which they were taken. Recovery will fail if any of the backups are missing.

A daily backup backs up files modified on the day of the backup, but does not clear the archive bit. A daily backup uses the file modification date rather than the archive bit to determine the files to back up.

A copy backup backs up selected files, but does not clear the archive bit. It backs up all selected files and does not check the archive bit.

A differential backup backs up changed files from the selected files, based on the archive bit value, but does not clear the archive bit. Because of this, each subsequent differential backup backs up more data and takes longer to run, until a backup is run that clears the archive bit. Recovery using differential backups is relatively easy because you recover from the last base (normal) backup and then only need to recover from the most recent differential backup.
Objective: Security