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In the maintenance plan wizard it's pretty easy to setup differential backups, but I don't quite understand how it knows what backup you want to base your differential off of?

BVernon
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    Whenever a differential backup is created (whether it's through a maintenance plan or otherwise), it is based on the most recent full backup (this excludes [COPY_ONLY backups](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191495(v=sql.110).aspx)) – Dave Mason Jul 16 '14 at 16:41
  • So just to confirm, if someone decides to make a manual backup at some point using the gui then the next differential will be based off of that backup unless they use the COPY_ONLY option, right? – BVernon Jul 16 '14 at 16:47
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    Yes, that is correct. – Dave Mason Jul 16 '14 at 16:51
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    From SQL Server Books On Line: "A differential backup is based on the **most recent, previous full backup**. This is known as the base of the differential. A differential backup includes only the data that has changed since the differential base. " – Ken White Jul 16 '14 at 17:09

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