Guide

How often you should actually check that your backups work

A backup that has never been tested is a hope, not a backup, and the gap between the two is usually only discovered at the worst possible moment.

Existing is not the same as working

A backup file can exist, take up the expected amount of space, and still be unreadable or incomplete due to a corrupted copy, an interrupted process, or a setting that quietly changed. Only opening it confirms it actually works.

A simple test takes a few minutes

Periodically opening a single random file from a backup, rather than restoring everything, is usually enough to catch most serious problems without turning verification into a chore.

Pick a schedule you will actually keep

A quarterly or twice-yearly check that actually happens is far more useful than an ambitious monthly check that gets skipped after the first try. Consistency matters more than frequency here.

Questions people ask