Full backup

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A full backup is a backup of all the data on a computer system, including all of the hidden and invisible files which would be necessary to completely restore the disk if it were, for example, corrupted by a virus attack, or to replace it with another disk if it were irreparably damaged, for example as a result of physical shock or electrical spike.

To accomplish a full backup, it is usually necessary to have specialist backup software such as Retrospect or Apple Time Machine, which is able to access and restore the files so as to make fully bootable drives. Simply copying the visible files to another disk will not achieve this.