Can I rely on image verify?

When I do an image check and the image check says, that it is ok - provided that the image doesn't get corrupted after the check, can I be sure that it is corruption free?

Thorsten

 

You could run another validation just before you do a restore that will over write an existing drive's data. If you want to be 100% sure you really need a spare hard drive to take the restore.

I persuaded myself to get an extra drive by thinking ahead to what I would need if my exising drive failed for real. I found it a great comfort to prove my backups by doing a full restore to a spare drive while my old working drive sat safe on the shelf.

 

Whether the image is seen as corrupted or not is done by calculating a checksum for the image and comparing it with the checksum that was calculated when the image was created. In other words, if OK, then your computer is accurately reading the data contained in the file as intended.

IMO, if TI was creating an archive with some bad (for whatever reason) disk data it would create the checksum based on that bad data and when validated, it would also calculate the checksum based on the data in the file and say the archive is OK. You would then restore the bad data and just how well that would work would depend on the nature of the bad data. For this reason, I think it is a good idea to run chkdsk from time-to-time to ensure your disk structure is in good shape.

Edit: Just saw XPilot's reply and totally agree that the 100% sure method is to do a restore.

 

That's how I learned to trust ATI, doing restorations over and over again, with or without reason. Restorations are routine for me now and I do them without fear, sometimes just for the fun.
You don't learn anything of doing backups, that is the EASY and boring part of ATI.
In the beginning, each restore was a real thriller and exciting, but not anymore, because they are always successfully and I did so many of them.

 

Hello Engywuck,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please note that as Xpilot said you can validate the image archive before data is restored from it. In order to do so please select "Validate backup archive before restoration" in Tools -> Options -> Default Restoration Options from the main program menu.

Please also note that if the hard drive (or another media) where the image archive is stored is good, for example, does not contain bad sectors that might cause data corruption (or the media is not damaged if this is CD/DVD diss) is it most likely that this image archive will not become corrupted. I would also recommend that you validate the image archive if you decided to move/copy it to another location/media because sometimes the file can be corrupted after coping.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov