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25 August 2026

The only backup that counts is the one you have restored from

A restore test takes an afternoon and answers the question your backup report cannot.

Backup software reports success when it finished writing. That is not the same as being able to get your company back, which is what you actually bought.

A restore test in one afternoon

  • Pick the system that would hurt most on a Monday morning.
  • Restore it somewhere isolated, from the backup you would really use — not the one the engineer prepared this morning.
  • Time it. Write down what was missing, what needed a password nobody had, and what surprised you.
  • Repeat with a date in the calendar, at least twice a year.

The result is a number you can tell your board: how long it takes to come back, tested on a real date. Almost everything else about backups is bookkeeping.