Verification of backed up files

Use this function to check whether the last backup was error-free or whether files have changed since the previous backup. In contrast to verification during backup, each individual file at the destination will be compared to the same file at the source bit by bit.

Select the location of the backed-up files to be verified

When verifying files, you must consider how the data was backed up (see Backup destination):

• The backup directory is on a local storage medium or on a network drive
  You can verify files backed up as single files or in zip files:
  • Select the root directory if the data was saved as single files (even if compressed and/or encrypted).
  • Select the zip file in the root directory if the data was saved as one zip file per subdirectory. All subdirectories must contain a zip file of the same name.
  • Select a single zip file if all data was saved there.
• The backup directory is on an FTP server
  Verification is only possible if your data was backed up as single files (even if compressed and/or encrypted).
  Note: Since the option Security copies is not available with an FTP backup, the corresponding settings shown in the above screenshot will not be displayed.
  FTP settings for Verify
  Clicking the button will open a dialog to configure the FTP server connection parameters (see here):
  
  After clicking the button, the program will connect to the FTP server and read the remote directory tree of the backup for the user to select a subdirectory.

Compare to

Files can be compared either to files in the original source directory or to files in any other directory:

• Source directory: The source path will be derived from the path name of the backup folder. Comparison to files at the source is only possible if you backed up the data with the option Drives separated, so that drive identifiers (such as DrvC, DrvD, ...) are part of the backup directory path.
• Selected directory: In this case you must browse to the directory containing the files that are to be used for verification. Clicking the button will open a dialog in which the directory can be selected.

Examine compressed single files
If the backup was made into single compressed files, enable this option to ensure that all files will automatically be unpacked on verification (default setting: enabled).
 

No decryption of enc files
Personal Backup adds the file extension enc for uncompressed encrypted files. These files are decrypted automatically on verification. If there are files from another application using this extension, the decryption will fail. You can prevent the program from decrypting such files by checking this option.
 

File filter

By using filename filters, filenames matching certain patterns may be included or excluded. Use the same rules as described for backup file filters (Standard file filter or Regular expressions).
 

File age

You can specify whether you want to verify only files older or newer than a given fixed or relative date.

• Relative to actual date: older than the specified number of back-dated days, weeks, months or years
• Fixed date: older or newer than the given date

Exclude security copies

If Security copies were created during backup, these files should be excluded from verification because they will not exist at the source, making verification impossible. Insert the same values for prefixes and suffixes as used during backup. To facilitate this setting, you can click the very left button at the bottom to import the settings from the corresponding backup task.

• Security copies created during backup
  The option Directory prefix is only required if the security copies were moved to separate directory. In this case the same prefix has to be specified as used on backup.
  The option Filename suffix must be selected if the security copies were not moved to a separate directory, but created by renaming. If placeholders were used on backup, clicking the appropriate button will insert the filter pattern needed to exclude these files. If a number of prior versions has been saved, use the upper right button to insert the counter placeholder (“#” character, e.g. bak-#).
  It is possible to make several entries separated by semicolons (e.g. bak;bak-#).
• Security copies created during synchronization
  The option Directory prefix must be set to the same settings used for the security copies on synchronization during backup. This will apply for directories that had to be deleted during synchronization as well as for the optional selectable directory used to move files to be deleted.
  The option Filename suffix is only required if the security copies were not moved to a separate directory, but created by renaming.
  If placeholders were used on backup, clicking the appropriate button will insert the filter pattern needed to exclude these files.

Mail delivery after verification

Similar to the option for backups, a mail with status information and optionally a log file can be sent after performing a verification task. The settings are the same as for backup.
 

Password

Here you can optionally specify a fixed password to be used for decryption of files. In this case the user will not be prompted to enter it during verify. So a verification may be performed in background without user interaction.
By clicking the small button at the right, you can import the password from the associated backup task. Note that this option cannot be used if the backup task is protected.
The icon on the button changes to show whether a fixed password was specified or the password has to be queried on verify.
 

Log settings

Clicking the button will open a dialog to adjust the log settings for Verify.
Click then button to view the current log.

Loading and saving verify tasks

Clicking the or button will save a configured verify task with all settings to disk. To load and reuse such a saved task, click the button.

A saved verify task can also be started from the command line. This makes it possible to use the Windows Task Scheduler to verify files at specific times, or to verify a backup directory by adding a shortcut to the Windows desktop:
PersBackup /verify <verify-task>

Automatic Verification using Windows Task Scheduler

You can configure a Windows scheduled task to carry out an automatic Verify by clicking the button. The configuration procedure is the same as described for backups.

Start verification

Clicking the button will start the verification. First the directory to be verified will be scanned to count all affected files. The subsequent comparison will have one of the following results:

• OK: all files compared were found to be identical.
• Warning: one (or more) file(s) for comparison were not found at source.
• Error: one (or more) file(s) compared were found not to be identical.

Notes on log: The result of the verification will be shown in the log as described below:

• Short log: only those files that failed verification (errors) will be added to the log. Optionally, also those files not found at source (warnings) will be added.
• Long log: all verified files will be added showing the appropriate result.
• Extended log: as for Long log, but additionally all source files used for comparison will be added.