Verifying Backups

Although not required, verifying a backup checks that the backup is intact physically, and that you can rely on your backup in the event you need to use it. Verifying a backup involves:

• Checking the backup set to ensure that all files have been written.
  
  
• Checking to ensure that the files in the backup are readable.

Verifying a backup does not check that the structure of the data contained within the backup set is correct. For example, although the backup set may have been written correctly, it may be possible for some type of database integrity problem to be present within the database files that comprise the backup set. To verify the structure of the data before creating a backup, you can perform database consistency checks. For more information about running database consistency checks, see Data Integrity Validation.

To verify the backup set

Transact-SQL