What is a common practice to ensure data integrity in backups?

What is a common practice to ensure data integrity in backups?

• A. Skipping integrity checks to save time.
• B. Daily backup reformatting.
• C. Regular data integrity checks.
• D. Only backing up metadata.

Answer: (C)

Regular data integrity checks are essential to confirm that backups are complete and uncorrupted. By verifying that what was written to the backup media matches the original data—using checksums, hash comparisons, or built‑in verification during restores—you catch corruption from hardware faults, transfer errors, or incomplete writes. Automation of these checks and periodic restore tests help ensure you can actually recover when needed. Skipping integrity checks hides problems that could render a restore useless. Daily reformatting of backups doesn’t address data integrity and wastes time, while backing up only metadata means you don’t have the actual files to restore. Regular checks provide real assurance that the backed-up data remains usable.

Regular data integrity checks are essential to confirm that backups are complete and uncorrupted. By verifying that what was written to the backup media matches the original data—using checksums, hash comparisons, or built‑in verification during restores—you catch corruption from hardware faults, transfer errors, or incomplete writes. Automation of these checks and periodic restore tests help ensure you can actually recover when needed.

Skipping integrity checks hides problems that could render a restore useless. Daily reformatting of backups doesn’t address data integrity and wastes time, while backing up only metadata means you don’t have the actual files to restore. Regular checks provide real assurance that the backed-up data remains usable.