Can you restore from your backup?

I am posting this because of a discussion in one of my classes. One of the students found out the hard way that his saved backup would not restore. As the discussion expanded, he told us that he had never verified the backups he made on a routine basis. I am betting that there a lot of users who really don't know if their backups can be used for recovery.

There is an extra step I perform on my backups. It is somewhat trivial and a little bit time consuming, but it gives me some piece of mind. There is a folder named test_backup saved to my desktop. It contains a notepad file which simply says success. After completing a backup, I delete the test_backup folder and restore both the folder with its contents and the notepad file by itself. To date, I have had no failures. I am, however, confident that the saved backup will be useful if needed.

bonus ...
You don't have to restore an entire backup. If you have ever deleted a file by mistake and want to get it back, you can recover it from a backup if it has been backed up.

drpepper

Brink,

I use Macrium Reflect free. I know that methods differ from one program to another. That is why I didn't include "how to" details. Your link for restoring only desired data from system restore (rather than a full restore) is something I was not aware could be done. Thanks for adding that to my toolbox.

drpepper

You're welcome. I hope it is a helpful starting point for someone wanting to know more about the backup and restore procedure.

drpepper