Verifying Time Machine backups

Posted by jtimberman on Super User See other posts from Super User or by jtimberman
Published on 2009-09-27T21:22:28Z Indexed on 2010/04/03 16:13 UTC
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Filed under:

timemachine

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osx

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backups

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verification

I'm preparing my system for a Snow Leopard upgrade, and I prepare for the worst case scenario: full reinstall and restore.

I would like to verify that my Time Machine backups are valid, and will restore correctly. My Time Machine backups go to a Linux server running Netatalk, and the backups complete successfully.

How do I do a test restore to an alternative location, or otherwise verify my data without overwriting any existing files? Do I need to save anything in particular externally to make sure I can access the backups if I have to reinstall from scratch?

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