Procedures for Backup and Recovery

Section 14

Key points and questions

• What data should be backed up and how often?

• What do we mean by full backup, incremental backup, differential backup and online backup?

• What media are available for storage?

• Who is responsible for backup?

Starter

• Compile a list of all the things on your computer that you would not want to lose and say why it is important to you.

• What would cause you to lose the files in the first place?

Activity

Possible cause (example) Prevention

Natural Disaster

Human Error

Software Corruption

Virus attack

Hardware Error

Media are available for storage

• Magnetic Tape

• Hard Disks

• Optical Disc

• Remote Backup service

Backup Types

• What do we mean by – full backup, – incremental backup, – differential backup and– online backup?

Backup types analysisType of backup Time taken to

perform backupRestore timerequired forbackup

Storage spacerequired

Hardware/Software required

FULL A long process asall data is backed up

A very quickmethod of restore

Large amountsof storage spaceRequired

Tape drives/DVD

DIFFERENTIAL More thanincremental but canbe quicker than afull backup

Less thanincremental buttakes longer thana full backup

Less storagespace than a fullbackup but

morethan anIncremental

Tape Drives/DVD/CD-ROM

INCREMENTAL The least time takenof the three

methods

The slowestrestore speed ofthe three methods

Storage space is

the lowest of thethree methods.

Tape drives/DVD/CD-ROM

Causes of Lost Data:

SalesHuman Error

SoftwareCorruptionVirus Attack

HardwareErrorSabotage

NaturalDisasters