A technician has access to a recent full backup. Data has changed since the last backup. Which of the following provides the fastest restore while minimizing backup size?

Bare metal backup captures an entire system image including the OS and is a backup type, not a strategy that balances restore speed against size.

A full backup copies all data every time, which is the fastest single-set restore but maximizes storage size rather than minimizing it.

A differential backup stores all data changed since the last full backup. Restoring requires only two sets - the full backup plus the single latest differential - making it faster than incremental. Its size is smaller than a full backup because it does not re-copy unchanged data.

Incremental backups are the smallest because they only capture changes since the last backup of any kind, but restoring requires the full backup plus every incremental in sequence, making restore the slowest option.