Exports or Logical Copies:

Many database systems such as Oracle support export of a logical copy of the database that will include the data definitions as well as the data stored in the database. One of the major benefits of the export process is that usually upward mobility is assured for several releases, that is, an export taken on version 7.1 will probably be able to be imported into version 7.3 or even 8.0 and further. However, most exports will not be readable by other database systems so if it isn't sure that you will be rebuilding the application on the database for which it was initially conceived, an export will probably not allow a rebuild of the application without completely re-installing the old database first.

Exports will allow a much smaller recovery footprint than an operating system backup. Since an export is a logical copy, the only items that get backed up are those that are required for rebuilding the database, or, even a section of the database (Oracle allows database, schema and table level exports.)

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