What is Backup Testing?

Backup testing means periodically restoring some of your backed-up files to confirm the backup actually works and is complete.

Why it matters: many businesses discover during a real emergency that their backups were corrupt, incomplete, or could not be restored. An untested backup is a false sense of security.

Practical example: after a ransomware attack, a company tries to restore from backup and finds the last six months never saved correctly. A simple restore test would have caught this.

Getting started: every six months, pick a few files and a full folder, restore them to a test location, and confirm they open correctly. Write down the date you tested.