Technology
Backups: check whether you can recover your working files
A successful backup notification does not answer the central question: can the team keep working after losing a computer? A short recovery exercise is needed.
Start with the work itself
Imagine a small studio preparing an order for dispatch. It needs the design, the customer’s approval and the delivery address. A folder with an impressive name is useless if its backup lacks any of these. This is a fictional editorial example, not an account of a real incident.
Make your own list: what information is needed to complete the next order? Where is each file, and who is authorized to open it? This starts the check with working needs rather than a storage purchase.
Run a safe rehearsal
The UK National Cyber Security Centre, NCSC, advises knowing how to restore a backup and checking that it is complete. An external backup drive should be disconnected between uses.
For the first exercise, choose a small, non-confidential document. Restore it into a separate test folder without overwriting the working original. Open it and check its date and contents. Record how long the process took and what access permissions it required.
Next, ask another authorized employee to repeat the exercise using written instructions. If only one person understands the process, that person’s absence can itself interrupt work.
Agree how much lost work is acceptable
In our studio, yesterday’s backup may lack today’s approval. The team therefore needs to decide how much new work it can accept recreating manually, and choose its backup frequency accordingly.
Opening one document successfully is only a first step. Accounting software, a website or an order database needs a separate check with the responsible specialist: files may depend on settings, applications and other data.
Schedule the next rehearsal. The aim is a demonstrated ability to resume work, not merely another device on the desk.
Source
NCSC: backing up data for small organisations. Checked on 13 September 2026. The studio scenario and first rehearsal procedure are editorial analysis.