Recovery point sets and independent recovery points in backup policies
The following table describes the advantages and disadvantages of scheduled independent recovery points or recovery point sets as part of your backup policy.
Warning: The full recovery point and all associated incremental recovery points that make up the recovery point set must be kept together in the same folder. If there are missing files, the recovery point becomes invalid and you cannot restore the data.
Table: Types of scheduled recovery points
| Type | Description |
| Recovery point set | Consider the following when you create recovery point sets. |
| | - A recovery point set is the same as an Independent recovery point except that it also has incremental tracking enabled for the selected drive. |
| | - This type of backup creates a base recovery point. Additional recovery points are created but save only the hard disk sectors that have changed since the creation of the base recovery point or the previous incremental recovery point. |
| | - Incremental recovery points are created faster than the first (base) recovery point and use less storage space than an independent recovery point. |
| | - Recovery point sets are ideal when you combine them with a schedule. |
| | - When you restore to a given point in time, the full recovery point plus all the incrementals up to that point in time are used for the restore. For example, suppose you have a full recovery point with eight incremental recovery points. You decide to restore the fourth incremental that was taken. When you restore, the full recovery point and the first four incrementals are used to restore the computer. |
| | - You can free hard drive space by deleting outdated recovery points and incremental recovery points. |
| Independent recovery point | Consider the following when you create independent recovery points. |
| | - An independent recovery point creates a complete, independent copy of the entire selected drive. |
| | - An independent recovery point is not associated with incremental recovery points or recovery point sets in any way. As such, independent recovery points stand on their own and are usually a less complicated method for protecting your computer than recovery point sets. You can create an independent recovery point of a drive (using a one-time backup) even if that drive is tracked with a recovery point set. See Creating an independent backup task . See Deploying an existing backup policy as soon as possible . |
| | - This backup type typically requires more storage space on a hard disk than a recovery point set. |