The difference in one sentence
- Incremental: copies data changed since the previous backup, whether it was full or incremental.
- Differential: copies data changed since the latest full backup.
Practical consequences
| Incremental | Differential | |
|---|---|---|
| Data copied | Since the previous backup | Since the latest full backup |
| Storage use | Lowest | Grows until the next full backup |
| Backup speed | Fastest | Slows over the cycle |
| Recovery | Latest full plus the entire incremental chain | Latest full plus one differential |
| Risk | One missing link breaks the chain | More straightforward to restore |
How to choose
- Choose incremental when storage and the backup window are constrained and a longer recovery is acceptable.
- Choose differential when simple, fast recovery and a tight RTO matter more than additional storage use.
In either case, recovery is the deciding factor on the day of an incident. Oxibox optimises chains through deduplication and parallel data streams, then restores systems within minutes through R2V from tamper-protected points, whichever backup scheme is used.