What type of backup uses a hybrid approach, essentially being a partial backup?

Snapshot backup is a technique that captures the state of a system at a specific point in time, often using a hybrid approach that combines features of both full and incremental backups. This method allows for the quick restoration of data to a specific state without the need to perform a full backup every time. Snapshots can be particularly efficient in virtualized environments, where the overhead of capturing the entire data set as a full backup might be prohibitive.

The snapshot effectively records the changes made since the last backup, enabling faster recovery and less storage consumption compared to traditional methods. This hybrid nature allows it to fulfill the role of a partial backup, as it does not require complete duplication of all data.

In contrast, full backups duplicate all data, while incremental backups only focus on new or changed data since the last backup was completed. Differential backups capture all changes made since the last full backup but still involve capturing more data than a snapshot would.