Testing Your Computer Backup
A Backup Article Contributed by Ashley Lister
Testing Your Computer Backup
Although it can seem like a waste of time and effort, it is vital to test the reliability of your computer backup system.
Computer Backups Alone Might Not Be Enough.
All of us who have ever conducted a computer backup can feel quietly sanctimonious that we have taken effective measures to safeguard and secure our data. Once all the hardware, software and consumables are in place, the chore does not take a great amount of time or effort. But it has been proved again and again that taking computer backups alone is not enough to be guaranteed of retrieving and restoring data in the event of an emergency.
Computer Backup Horror Stories.
The internet is replete with computer backup horror stories about individuals who have gone through a daily regime of backups without ever needing them in five or ten years. This modern horror story inevitably gets to the point where a backup is required and, with tragic inevitability, it is discovered at this late stage that the backup won't restore.
These modern horror stories are often based on truth, and identify a problem that many people fail to take into account when they are organizing every other detail of the backup they require. In order to be confident about the quality and validity of any computer backup, it needs to be tested to prove that it will be able to restore when it is needed.
The simplest way of doing this is try a trail backup and restore. Using whichever medium and software you have chosen for your backups you should perform a custom backup on a file that is large, but of little or no value. For the sakes of testing it is probably best to create a file specifically for the experiment.
Backup the file, make sur the backup operation acts in the same way that you would expect from any other backup routine, and then delete the file that you have backed up. Once the file has been deleted you need to restore the file from the backup you made and check its integrity. If everything has been restored properly the chances are that your backup is safe and working properly.
If there are any problems at all is is wise to spend the time and money addressing what has gone wrong and making sure the problem is rectified at the earliest opportunity. It could simply be a problem with incompatible media, or some software issue that is easily resolved. But, whatever the cause, the solution needs to be found with some urgency.
Computer Backups Must Be Regularly and Thoroughly Tested.
An effective computer backup system is a vital part of anyone's computer system. A regime of regular backups is equally important to safeguard data against the threat of catastrophe. But you can only be sure a computer backup is of any value if you have tested its ability to restore. Unless you thoroughly test the restore procedure, you might be wasting time and money and leaving yourself open to a serious catastrophe.
