backup (noun)

an accumulation caused by clogging or a stoppage

"a traffic backup on the main street"; "he discovered a backup in the toilet"

stand-in, substitute, relief, reliever, backup, backup man, fill-in (noun)

someone who takes the place of another (as when things get dangerous or difficult)

"the star had a stand-in for dangerous scenes"; "we need extra employees for summer fill-ins"

accompaniment, musical accompaniment, backup, support (noun)

a musical part (vocal or instrumental) that supports or provides background for other musical parts

backup, computer backup (noun)

(computer science) a copy of a file or directory on a separate storage device

"he made a backup in case the original was accidentally damaged or erased"

backing, backup, championship, patronage (noun)

the act of providing approval and support

"his vigorous backing of the conservatives got him in trouble with progressives"

backup (Noun)

A reserve or substitute.

backup (Noun)

A copy of a file or record, stored separately from the original, that can be used to recover the original if it is destroyed or damaged.

backup (Noun)

An accumulation of material that halts the flow or movement of something.

backup (Noun)

reinforcements

backup (Adjective)

standby, reserve or extra

backup (Adjective)

That is intended as a backup.

Backup

In information technology, a backup, or the process of backing up, refers to the copying and archiving of computer data so it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is to back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup. Backups have two distinct purposes. The primary purpose is to recover data after its loss, be it by data deletion or corruption. Data loss can be a common experience of computer users. A 2008 survey found that 66% of respondents had lost files on their home PC. The secondary purpose of backups is to recover data from an earlier time, according to a user-defined data retention policy, typically configured within a backup application for how long copies of data are required. Though backups popularly represent a simple form of disaster recovery, and should be part of a disaster recovery plan, by themselves, backups should not alone be considered disaster recovery. One reason for this is that not all backup systems or backup applications are able to reconstitute a computer system or other complex configurations such as a computer cluster, active directory servers, or a database server, by restoring only data from a backup. Since a backup system contains at least one copy of all data worth saving, the data storage requirements can be significant. Organizing this storage space and managing the backup process can be complicated undertaking. A data repository model can be used to provide structure to the storage. Nowadays, there are many different types of data storage devices that are useful for making backups. There are also many different ways in which these devices can be arranged to provide geographic redundancy, data security, and portability.

Backup

In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is "back up", whereas the noun and adjective form is "backup". Backups can be used to recover data after its loss from data deletion or corruption, or to recover data from an earlier time.  Backups provide a simple form of disaster recovery; however not all backup systems are able to reconstitute a computer system or other complex configuration such as a computer cluster, active directory server, or database server.A backup system contains at least one copy of all data considered worth saving. The data storage requirements can be large. An information repository model may be used to provide structure to this storage. There are different types of data storage devices used for copying backups of data that is already in secondary storage onto archive files. There are also different ways these devices can be arranged to provide geographic dispersion, data security, and portability. Data is selected, extracted, and manipulated for storage. The process can include methods for dealing with live data, including open files, as well as compression, encryption, and de-duplication. Additional techniques apply to enterprise client-server backup. Backup schemes may include dry runs that validate the reliability of the data being backed up. There are limitations and human factors involved in any backup scheme.