Differential backup

  • We make in our company some times differential backups. The default file extension in the maintenance plan wizard is for this type of backup .BAK. So my question is: Is there any industrial standard about the extension for differential backups like e.g. .dbk or what ever?

  • There is no standard I'm aware. Just use whatever makes sense to you and make sure you stick to that naming convention.

    In my case I've always used .bak and I just use <full_dbname_datetimestamp>.bak or <diff_dbname_datetimestamp>bak as a naming convention.

  • There's no standard. In fact, I'd probably just leave the extension as is and rename the file as the other poster did.

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  • Typically:

    .dif = differential backup

    .fil = filegroup backup

    .trn = tranlog backup

    as most people follow MS's lead, as they did with .bak, .mdf, .ndf (silly, imo, why not .mdf also???), etc..

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