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[rpstewart]

Check the documentation because I can never remember which way round it is but (I think) with incremental backups you need all the incrementals since the last full to capture all changes whereas with a differential you only need the last differential and the last full.

Personally I prefer a file sync tool like Synctoy or Robocopy for this sort of backup.

 

[SiriusB]

rpstewart is correct. Differential backups tend to have two files. The original backup, and the differential file containing all the changes. Incremental can any amount of files. Each one being changes since the last incremental was done.

The advantage of a Differential is that you can track changes without massively increasing the size of the backup. Though at some point you will probably want to create a new full backup.

Incremental backups let you go back to any point in time [if there is a corresponding backup of course]. Though again, you need to do a full image now and then as the amount of increments adds up.

 

[Fourstar]

Is your full backup made to an external HDD or other such updatable media?

If so I'd just sync across to the backup drive rather than doing incremental backups.

Back to your question both your backup schemes start with a full backup then:

Incremental:
Produces the differences between now and when previously run

full backup
i1 - diff between now and full backup
i2 - diff between now and i1
i3 - diff between now and i2

To restore backup we take the full backup then apply i1, i2 and i3 to it.

Differential:
Produces the differences between now and the full backup

full backup
d1 - diff between now and full backup
d2 - diff between now and full backup
d3 - diff between now and full backup

To restore backup we take the full backup then apply d3

(assuming you want the latest backup in both cases)

 

[Pho]

Maybe I should have been a little clearer.

All i want the program todo is just look at what files have changed and just update them folders, rather than copying the whole thing across and replacing all the files regardless.

Which one do I use?

I use Syncback to do that - basically I have two jobs set-up, one to copy my music and one to copy my photos.

When I run the job it compares the copy on my computer with the copy on the backup drive and gives me a list of all the changes (it's very quick), e.g. files which have been deleted or modified. From here I can choose what action to perform; delete local copy, delete backup copy, update backup, restore from backup etc.

You can automate it fully, so it just goes off and replaces everything on the backup drive, but I prefer to check it manually to avoid replacing the backup with a full set of corrupt files .