What does a full backup entail?

A full backup involves creating a copy of every single file on the system, including all data, applications, and system files. This ensures that a complete snapshot of the data is preserved at a single point in time, which is crucial for data recovery in case of hardware failures, data corruption, or other loss scenarios. By capturing everything, a full backup allows users to restore their systems to the exact state they were in at the time of the backup, without missing any files or configurations.

This comprehensive nature of full backups makes them a foundational component of data protection strategies. While full backups require more time and storage space compared to incremental or differential backups, they provide a straightforward recovery process, since there is no need to combine multiple backup sets to recover data.

In contrast, the other options describe different backup methodologies that do not encompass the entirety of the files on the system. Incremental backups only capture files that have changed since the last backup, and selective backups are based solely on the user's choices, leaving other files vulnerable if not backed up. Therefore, the essence of a full backup is its all-encompassing nature, ensuring total data redundancy and security.