|
It would be devastating to diligently make
backups, only to find some day that you're
unable to restore the file(s) you've lost
and so desperately need. Two things often
go wrong: Either the file you thought you
had backed up was not included in your backup,
or your file restore process fails to work.
Follow the steps below to test your backups
and make sure neither happens to you:
- Start with a small test: You really only
need to backup and restore a few files to
see if the system itself works. Don't restore
some important file to test your process.
Something might go horribly wrong and you'd
lose your file completely.
- Create a test folder containing a couple
of test files. Create the files, or just
copy a few existing ones to your test folder.
Back up the folder and files, using the method
you've picked. Use the actual backup media
that you intend to use for your real backups
(floppy, Zip, CD-R, etc.) too.
- Check the content of your backup archive.
Not all archives have a way for you to examine
what's in them, but most do. You may need
to go through the first steps of the restore
process to see the contents of the archive.
You can usually abandon the process before
the file(s) are actually restored.
- Delete the test files and test folder. Then,
see if you can actually restore them from
your backup.
- Make your *real* backup(s). Check the actual
contents of the archive(s).
If they don't
have everything in them you
expected, figure
out why, and do the backup
again.
In particular, make sure that any new files
that you've added get picked up. For example
some CD burning software does not add new
files to compilations that you've saved,
even though you see the folder listed. You'll
need to delete the folder in the compilation
and then add it back to pick up new files.
-
Checking your backup contents thoroughly
every time you make new backups until you're
confident your process works consistently.
|