Your Backup Has Never Been Tested — the 15-Minute Way to Find Out
Ask a small business owner whether they have backups and the answer is usually yes. Ask when they last restored a file from one and the answer is usually a pause.
A backup you've never restored from is a guess. The software can report "success" every night while copying the wrong folder, skipping files that were open, or writing to a drive that filled up months ago. You find out on the worst possible day.
Here's how to find out now. It takes about 15 minutes.
Step 1: Know what you're protecting (3 minutes)
Write down where your important data lives. For most small offices it's some mix of:
- Email (Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace)
- Shared files (OneDrive, SharePoint, Google Drive, Dropbox, or a server in a closet)
- Accounting (QuickBooks Online or a desktop company file)
- One or two industry-specific apps
One thing to know about the cloud: Microsoft and Google keep your data available if their hardware fails. That's not the same as a backup you control. If someone deletes a folder, a ransomware infection syncs encrypted files up, or an account gets removed, deleted items only stay in the recycle bin for a limited number of days. After that, they're gone.
Step 2: Restore one file (10 minutes)
Pick a file that changed recently: last week's invoice, a spreadsheet someone edited yesterday. Then:
1. Open your backup tool, or ask whoever set it up where it is.
2. Find that file as it existed a few days ago.
3. Restore it to a new location. Never restore over the original.
4. Open it. Make sure it's the right version and it isn't damaged.
If you can't find the backup tool, that's your answer. If the newest copy is weeks old, that's your answer too.
Step 3: Check three numbers (2 minutes)
How old is the newest backup? That's how much work you lose if something fails right now. For most offices, more than 24 hours is too much.
Where does the copy live? If the only backup is a USB drive plugged into the same computer, ransomware can encrypt both. You want at least one copy that's off-site or in the cloud and can't be changed from your office machines.
How long would a full restore take? Restoring one file is quick. Restoring 200 GB over an office internet connection can take a day or more. Know that number before you need it.
What "good" looks like
The standard is the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of your data, on two different kinds of storage, with one copy off-site.
For a 5-to-20 person office, that usually means your live data, a separate cloud backup of Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and a backup of any local server or accounting file that's stored somewhere else.
Put it on the calendar
Run this test once a quarter. Rotate what you restore: an email one quarter, a shared file the next, the accounting file after that. Write down the date and the result.
If an insurer ever asks whether you test your backups (cyber insurance applications increasingly do), you'll have a real answer instead of a guess.
Want help checking what you have or setting it up properly? We do a free systems review for Connecticut small businesses. Request one here.