I test my image backups that are made onto external USB enabled drives (see my description here)....which in fact are things like 160GB or 320GB SATA drives in external cases with USB2.0 to SATA converters built into the case...by simply mounting the image as a WindowsXP drive and looking at some random files. I don't do this every time but often enough to gain confidence that I can compare the contents of a source code folder in the backup image mounted drive back to the original folder.

I have also, on several instances, installed a temporary replacement boot drive in my machine to test restore of a backup image back onto the boot drive to ensure that Windows can still boot from it. Yes it is essential to perform this type of test if one wants to make the investment in backup a worth while exercise. A side comment is that I regularly make a full image backup copies of a system before I attempt to install new software which will be making a drastic change to the installed configuration. Then if the new installation goes sour I simply restore the system back the way it was from one of the image backups. Less than say 45 minutes and my system is back like it was before I ventured out to install the new fire cracker.

One last comment is that I really like the use of external USB2.0 drives as backups because it is very easy to carry them to alternate sites from time to time to permit that recoverability from fire/earthquake/flood/theft to be possible. For example, some of my backup drives are even the small form factor USB2.0 cases that hold a 2.5inch laptop IDE type drive. These small cases can easily be kept even in the smallest security box or safe at an offsite location.

Michael Karas