How to Verify That a Backup Completed Without Errors

This topic explains how to verify that a backup has completed without errors.

1. After a backup job completes, make sure that the Backup Progress dialog box displays Status: Completed.

   The Backup Progress dialog box

   

2. Click Report to view the backup log file to determine whether any errors occurred during the backup.

   By default, the log file is set to record only a summary of the backup job that is performed. If you receive error messages during a backup and want more detailed data about the failure, you can perform the backup again by using detailed logging. Then you can search the log file to find out exactly what happened. For more information about enabling detailed logging, see Selecting the Default Settings for Backup.

   The following is an example of a backup log of a Windows backup, including the Exchange folder, which completed without errors:

   ----------------------

   Backup Status

   Operation: Backup

   Active backup destination: File

   Media name: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Backup (via shadow copy) of "C: BOOT"

   Backup set #1 on media #1

   Backup description: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Media name: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Backup Type: Normal

   Backup started on 3/11/2004 at 5:31 PM.

   Backup completed on 3/11/2004 at 5:31 PM.

   Directories: 3

   Files: 29

   Bytes: 2,025,337

   Time: 1 second

   Backup (via shadow copy) of "D: System"

   Backup set #2 on media #1

   Backup description: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Media name: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Backup Type: Normal

   Backup started on 3/11/2004 at 5:31 PM.

   Backup completed on 3/11/2004 at 5:48 PM.

   Directories: 1675

   Files: 12925

   Bytes: 1,919,675,569

   Time: 16 minutes and 55 seconds

   Backup (via shadow copy) of "F: Exchange"

   Backup set #3 on media #1

   Backup description: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Media name: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Backup Type: Normal

   Backup started on 3/11/2004 at 5:48 PM.

   Backup completed on 3/11/2004 at 5:53 PM.

   Directories: 257

   Files: 3551

   Bytes: 1,083,988,436

   Time: 5 minutes and 0 seconds

   Backup (via shadow copy) of "System State"

   Backup set #4 on media #1

   Backup description: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Media name: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Backup Type: Copy

   Backup started on 3/11/2004 at 5:53 PM.

   Backup completed on 3/11/2004 at 5:56 PM.

   Directories: 189

   Files: 2624

   Bytes: 461,069,597

   Time: 2 minutes and 36 seconds

   ----------------------

   Verify Status

   Operation: Verify After Backup

   Active backup destination: File

   Active backup destination: H:\Windows Backup 3-11-04.bkf

   Verify of "C:"

   Backup set #1 on media #1

   Backup description: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Verify started on 3/11/2004 at 5:56 PM.

   Verify completed on 3/11/2004 at 5:56 PM.

   Directories: 3

   Files: 29

   Different: 0

   Bytes: 2,025,337

   Time: 1 second

   Verify of "D:"

   Backup set #2 on media #1

   Backup description: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Verify started on 3/11/2004 at 5:56 PM.

   Verify completed on 3/11/2004 at 5:57 PM.

   Directories: 1675

   Files: 12925

   Different: 0

   Bytes: 1,919,675,569

   Time: 1 minute and 18 seconds

   Verify of "F:"

   Backup set #3 on media #1

   Backup description: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Verify started on 3/11/2004 at 5:57 PM.

   Verify completed on 3/11/2004 at 5:58 PM.

   Directories: 257

   Files: 3551

   Different: 0

   Bytes: 1,083,988,436

   Time: 34 seconds

   Verify of "System State"

   Backup set #4 on media #1

   Backup description: "Windows Backup created 3/11/2004 at 5:28 PM"

   Verify started on 3/11/2004 at 5:58 PM.

   Verify completed on 3/11/2004 at 5:58 PM.

   Directories: 189

   Files: 2624

   Different: 0

   Bytes: 461,069,597

   Time: 16 seconds

   ----------------------

3. Check the backup log file for errors. Make sure that there are no errors in the backup log file.

   Note

   Each backup job adds information to this log file. You might have to scroll to the bottom of the log file to find the information that relates to the most recent backup.

4. If you enabled verification for this backup job, you can view the Verify Status section of the log file to see which files in the backup (if any) do not match the original files on disk by looking at the Different: line in the log file. Note that some files change regularly, and a discrepancy between files does not always indicate a problem.

5. Close the log file and the Backup Progress dialog box.

6. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Event Viewer.

7. In Event Viewer, in the console tree, click Application. In the details pane, make sure that there are no Error entries reported in the application event log that have "NTBackup" or "ESE" (the Extensible Storage Engine) as their source. These errors indicate that the backup has not been completely successful.

   Important

   This step is essential when you back up Exchange data. Some errors that occur will only show up in the application event log. Do not rely only on the backup logs when you back up Exchange.

   Note

   To speed up your search, look for events that indicate when the backup and verification processes started and completed. Then review any events that occurred in between. Event 8000 indicates the start of the backup and Event 8019 indicates the end.

8. Close Event Viewer after you have looked for errors.

For more information about using the Backup utility, see Using the Backup Utility in Windows Server 2003 to Backup and Restore Your Data.