The backup options and strategies available are function of your software, not the medium. Most allow one to accomplish the level of safety necessary.
Incremental backup uses save sets, and a log of save sets. This allows one to be able to recreate your system to the state of existence at the time the save set was accomplished.
So if you do an incremental backup immediately prior to upgrading your system, and discover the software upgrade is not what you wish, or the older version for some reason was better suited to your purposes, you can just restore to that save set. This wouldn't usually be necessary, you would just restore certain files. But if your installation had a major negative impact on your system, and you weren't sure how much damage was done, you could restore to exactly were you were as of any date.
Depending on the importance of your system, how many users etc., you may have a strategy that uses several save set strategies. Backup medium X may have several save sets that go back in time beyond what will ever be used, but include some that must be saved. In order to be able to recapture the medium, you would start a new medium Y, while saving medium X, until it's contents becomes obsolete, when it can be reused.
Some archiving strategies are also usually offered to minimize storage space. An advantage to allowing one backup system to control these functions is the activity logs that are maintained.
So my suggestion is to get familiar with the options and functions of a good commercial backup package, and apply a strategy that does what you need.
I personally have alternative named sets, say A & B for each logical drive. I let the current set grow ‘till it needs four zips, then erase the old set (4 zips), call it the current set, and start over.
Ricardo
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