220-1102 - Operational Procedures (22% of the exam) - Section 4.3

Implement workstation backup and recovery methods.

Choose a correct backup and recovery scheme - full, incremental, differential, and synthetic - for a stated recovery requirement. Apply backup rotation schemes including on-site versus off-site storage, grandfather-father-son (GFS), and the 3-2-1 backup rule, and verify recoverability through regular backup testing and an appropriate backup frequency.

Backup and recoveryFull vs incremental3-2-1 backup ruleGrandfather-father-sonBackup testing

Practice question for this objective

Free sampleOperational Proceduresmedium

A server takes a full backup every Sunday and a differential backup every weeknight. Its drive fails on Wednesday afternoon, after Tuesday night's differential completed. Which media are required to restore the server to its most recent state?

AThe Sunday full backup plus every differential taken since Sunday.
BThe Sunday full backup plus only the most recent differential backup. Correct
COnly the most recent differential backup taken on Tuesday night.
DThe Sunday full backup plus every incremental taken since Sunday.

Restore a differential scheme with the full plus only the latest differential, since each differential holds all changes since the full. A differential backup copies all data changed since the last full and leaves the archive bit set, so successive differentials are cumulative and a restore needs the full plus just the newest differential.

Why A is wrong: This is the correct rule for an incremental chain, but differentials do not clear the archive bit, so each one already contains all prior changes and only the latest is needed.

Why B is correct: Correct: a differential captures everything changed since the last full, so restoring the full and then applying only Tuesday night's differential rebuilds the server to its latest backed-up state in two steps.

Why C is wrong: The latest differential holds recent changes, but a differential is not self-contained and cannot restore without first laying down the base full it was measured against.

Why D is wrong: This describes an incremental restore, but the schedule ran differentials, not incrementals, so no such incremental set exists to apply.

See more 220-1102 practice questions, answers explained.

Exam traps in Operational Procedures

Answers that look right on this material and are not. Each one is a distractor from a different question in the 220-1102 bank for this domain.

Run a full backup every night so each restore needs only a single job.
Why it is wrong: It is tempting because a full backup gives the simplest one-step restore, but running a full copy nightly is the slowest job and consumes the most storage, which is exactly what the firm wants to avoid.
A full backup every night, because it makes the eventual restore the simplest single-step operation.
Why it is wrong: A nightly full does give the simplest restore, but it copies everything each time, so it is the slowest to run and the heaviest on storage, which is the opposite of the stated goal.
Keep three copies of the data on one external USB drive, refreshing all three folders each night.
Why it is wrong: Three copies is the right count, but storing them on a single drive in one location fails both the two-media and the one-off-site parts of the rule.

Examworthy is not affiliated with or endorsed by CompTIA. Original, blueprint-aligned practice material only.