Most backup software emails you a message indicating the latest backup is successful.

But, how does that prove 100% that you now have a valid backup that can be successfully restored in case your data drive fails?

Sure, the backup software may have scanned your data drive for new or updated files and successfully transferred the new or updated data to the backup device.

For those types of backup systems, the only way to verify 100% you have a good backup is restoring the data.

Do you want to spend time and effort every week restoring backups for one or more computers to see if the backup is good?

Probably not.

The other option is to wait until you have a drive failure or ransomware has locked your data.

Then, when you do a restore you'll discover your backup is good or not.

I personally, don't want to wait until my data drive is damaged to find out whether my backups are good or not.

Datto Screenshot Verification

Here's how you verify 100% you have a good backup that can be successfully restored.

The Datto backup software performs Screenshot Verification.

Once, the current backup has completed, the Datto backup software spins up a Virtual Machine (VM) of the backup, takes a screenshot of the login screen, and emails you the screenshot.

The image at the top of this post is a screenshot of my login screen after a backup has completed.

By looking at the login screenshot I know 100% that the backup is good.

I personally rest easy at night knowing my backups are good.

And, I can successfully spin up a Virtual Machine (VM) and resume my work, or I can successfully restore the backup to a new data drive.

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