A crash-consistent backup is where all data is captured at the same point in time. For all things not database related this method of backup should suffice for most recovery situations. A crash-consistent backup, as with an inconsistent backup, does not capture any data that is in memory or any pending I/O transactions. The term “crash” is used because if the data is recovered using this method it would be equivalent to restoring to the exact moment that the server had crashed. Crash-consistent backups can be used but it is important to perform the correct operational tasks to ensure you are restoring properly. For example with SQL Server you may need to replay transaction logs to get the database back to a consistent transactional state.