• Article

Creating Full and Differential Backups of a SQL Server Database

Creating the correct backups is essential to a successful backup-and-restore strategy. The topics in this section describe how to create the various types of data and differential backups.

In This Section

  • Full Database Backups
    Describes how to use full database backups and differential database backups.

  • Partial Backups
    Describes how to use partial backups and differential partial backups.

  • Full File Backups
    Describes how to use file backups and differential file backups.

  • Using Differential Backups
    Describes the restrictions on using differential backups under the simple recovery model, the backup upon which a differential backup is based, and the conditions under which a file that is created after the differential base is included in new differential backups.

  • Backing Up Read-Only Databases
    Describes partial backups after changing a database to read-write access and differential backups of a read-only database.

Note

For information about how to schedule backup jobs for a database, see Maintenance Plan Wizard.