How to check that the backup is good

There are 2 elements we need to validate:

1. The existence, size and date of the backup file

2. That we can indeed restore and use one (or more) of the backed up files.

A: Check that the backup files are from resent dates reasonable size:

1. Double click on the “BackupLog” found on desktop, inspect if for errors.
2. Open “My Computer”
3. Click on the “Folders” button
4. Click on C:
5. Click on \ntBackup
6. Insure that “Friday.bk” and “Tuesday.bkf” exist.
7. Insure that the “modified date” is from last week or so.
8. Click on E:
9. Repeat steps 5, 6 and 7
10. Ensure that the size of the files is about 4GB for Tuesday.bkf, and about 30GB for Friday.bkf

B: Verify that can restore a file and that the files is valid – can function properly:

1. Start, Run type ntbackup and click OK
2. Click on Restore tab
3. Click on the backup set you want to check
4. Click on the + left to the “File” root of the tree.
5. Click on the + left to the set you want to check, navigate to the file you want to restore – usually it would be the Quick Books or Quicken data files.
6. When see the files that you want to check, Check (select) them
7. VERY IMPORTANT!!! You click in “Restore to File” and select “Single Folder” DO NOT FORGET!!!
8. In Alternate location type “c:\temp\”
9. Click on start restore!
10. When finished, close ntBackup
11. Open “My Computer”
12. Navigate to c:\temp
13. Double click on the restored file
14. Make sure it works and looks OK

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