How to test Macrium Reflect backup - silly question?

This may be a silly question with an obvious answer, but I'll ask anyway.

I do regular full and differential backups of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows, as well the same for my data drive.

I'm well aware that I ought to test them - I already test that I can boot into Macrium recovery and that it can see the backups.

But how can I test them without risking failure and a non-loading Windows system?

The only real way is to restore the image.
Are you verifying after imaging? While this isn’t proof then image will restore it can ensure there’s no problem with the created image.
You could always use the boot (as an VM) image option if you have the paid version.

tpriest said:

This may be a silly question with an obvious answer, but I'll ask anyway.

I do regular full and differential backups of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows, as well the same for my data drive.

I'm well aware that I ought to test them - I already test that I can boot into Macrium recovery and that it can see the backups.

But how can I test them without risking failure and a non-loading Windows system?

I see that you profile says your System One has Win10 Pro. If you have Hyper-V then you could use Macrium's viBoot to boot the image as a virtual machine, confirming that the image contains a complete and bootable system.

Macrium viBoot enables you, to instantly create, start and manage Microsoft Hyper-V and VirtualBox virtual machines using one or more Macrium Reflect image files as the basis of the virtual machine storage sub-system.

At a minimum, viBoot enables you to boot into the images you have made using Macrium Reflect, for validation purposes, or to retrieve data from old applications stored on a bootable image.

Macrium viBoot - Knowledgebase 8.0 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

I use the viBoot feature but a Reflect recovery from backup has never failed me. You can also mount any partition from a Reflect backup file as a virtual drive where you can check the files / folders.

The best way to check a backup is to restore image to a virtual hard drive and make a native boot entry for it. The vhd maximum size must be less than free space on drive containing vhd (I recommend at least 30 GB) e.g. if free space on drive is 120 GB, make max size of vhd 90 GB. Obviously vhd needs to be big enough to hold contents of image.

cereberus said:

The best way to check a backup is to restore image to a virtual hard drive and make a native boot entry for it. The vhd maximum size must be less than free space on drive containing vhd (I recommend at least 30 GB) e.g. if free space on drive is 120 GB, make max size of vhd 90 GB. Obviously vhd needs to be big enough to hold contents of image.

That is a good tip.

Native boot doesn't mind whether the drive holding the vhd file is internal or external, so if your PC is tight on space you can use an external usb drive. If so, it's best to use an external SSD drive.

Thanks for these replies. I do have the paid version.

Will change to using Verify as a first step. And will follow the others up when home after our current holiday.

Good Hank said:

In many years I've never had a Macrium image that verified okay fail to restore. That's what I like about Macrium, it's always been very reliable.

Perhaps I've been very fortunate but I have never had a situation where I've had a need to restore. I guess that's why I'm wary and seek a way of testing recovery without overwriting the working system.

The suggestions up thread sound useful and will follow them up in due course.