Oracle RMAN – How Long Will an Already Started Online Backup Take?

A Cold Backup is making a copy of the files with the database closed. These commands are both for hot backups using RMAN. They are both preferred over cold backups due to their flexibility.

The difference between the two commands is whether or not archive logs are backed up. If you need be able to recover to any point between your backups or anytime after your most recent backup, then you will need to be in archivelog mode. If you are in archivelog mode then something needs to be done to backup those archive logs and use should use the PLUS ARCHIVELOG syntax.

It is advisable to periodically test a recovery as well to make sure your backups are working and you can recover.

Don't specify two conflicting FORMATs (you have one in the ALLOCATE CHANNEL command and one in the BACKUP command).

If and when you need different FORMATs (e.g. one for database datafile backups, one for archivelog backups and one for controlfile backups) specify them explicitly with the BACKUP command.

Eg:

> rman target mydatabase

    shutdown;
    startup mount;
RUN {
      ALLOCATE CHANNEL ch1 TYPE 
        DISK FORMAT 'C:\Backup_Folder\mydatabase%d_DB_%u_%s_%p'; 
      BACKUP DATABASE;
      RELEASE CHANNEL ch1;
    }
    EXIT;

Note: I noticed that you provided the path starting with "C:/". Shouldn't it start with "C:\"?