What is a significant drawback of using incremental backups for restoration?

The significant drawback of using incremental backups for restoration is that it requires multiple backups to be restored. Incremental backups work by saving only the data that has changed since the last backup was made, whether that was a full backup or another incremental backup. Therefore, when it comes time to restore data, the original full backup must be restored first, followed by each incremental backup created subsequently. This means that if you need to restore your system, you may have to gather and apply many individual backup sets, which can be time-consuming and complex.

This reliance on multiple backups can introduce potential complications, such as the risk of missing one of the incremental backups or issues with data integrity across those backups. Each incremental backup depends on the data integrity of the previous backups, so if any of them are corrupted or unavailable, it can hinder the restoration process and lead to incomplete data recovery. This is a crucial consideration when assessing the efficiency and reliability of a backup strategy.