

So if Sunday you do a complete backup, the Monday incremental backup will be all the changes form the Sunday backup. The other differential backups can become corrupted and it doesn't matter.Īn incremental backup only copies chances from the most recent backup. The advantage is that you only need the complete and one differential backup to do a complete restore.

So the disadvantage is that the longer you go between complete backups, the bigger the differential backups get. The Wednesday differential backup will be all the changes from the Sunday backup. The Tuesday differential backup will be all the changes from the Sunday backup. So if Sunday you do a complete backup, the Monday differential backup will be all the changes from the Sunday backup. A complete backup is just what it sounds like - a copy of everything is made to the backup device.Ī differential backup only copies changes from the complete backup. There are basically three forms of backup. Its interface is a bit clumsier, and it's slower. Its primary drawback is that the free version does not support incremental backups (more on that later).ĮaseUS ToDo Backup is the only free one I know of which supports incremental backups. Macrium Reflect Free is probably the best in terms of robustness, feature set, and speed.
#Is there a windows equivalent for mac time machine software#
Backup software for the PC which does the same thing exists, but requires you to be a bit more knowledgeable about what the software is doing. Apple did a really nice job with Time Machine, hiding most of the complexities of backups from the user while not skimping on capability.
