There were only two possibilities to choosing a right backup in SQL Server: a full backup or a transaction log backup. Starting with SQL Server 7, additional choices have proliferated. You now have four ways to back up your database.
If you are responsible for maintaining SQL Server databases then you need to take the backup of your database. Furthermore, you need to be familiar with these various options and know when to apply each backup type. I show you and discuss how to choose among the various options to take the database backup.
How many different ways can you back up your SQL Server database?
SQL Server provides four different ways for taking backup of your database:
A full backup makes a complete backup of your database. You will almost always need to start your backup strategy with a full backup of your database. This is safe for all the points of database.
A file backup is useful when your database is so large that a full backup would take too long and all backup details are stored in only one file.
A transaction log backup creates a copy of all changes that are made to the database that are currently stored in the transaction log. So, to take the backup of transaction log file is very easy.
A differential backup stores all changes that have occurred to the database since the last full backup. This only takes the changes between this two backup of database.
These are all four ways to take the backup of your database.
