Most people think that backups are just a matter of having a copy of your files. However, to be of any use and to prevent any loss of data, your backups should be updated. The more up-to-date your backups are, the less data you'd lose. To ensure that your backups are updated, backup software performs three types of backups: • Full Backup: where all your files and data are copied to another disk, media, or to the cloud. • Incremental backup: Where only the data was changed since your last incremental backup was created. • Differential backup: Where only the data that was changed since your last full backup was created. A full backup will take a lot of time and if you do this it is going to take not only an inordinately long time but also you'd have to have a lot of storage space to ensure that your different backups are stored and secured. To prevent data loss, Veeam and other tools will first create a full backup of your systems and then update it with an incremental or differential backup. So you get to save time while also ensuring that your most up-to-date files and systems are secure and properly stored.