According to Adam Engst, it should be
National Verify Your Backups Day!
I'm hopeful that we are all making backup
s of our Macs. But when was the last time you
VERIFIED the backup
s?! Unless you've done that, you're simply wasting cpu cycles.
TimeMachine doesn't allow re-booting, but you can still
VERIFY that at least some, and therefore, hopefully all the backed up files. Just pick a couple of files from a couple of different time periods and Restore them. Just remember to click the "
Keep Both" option to avoid over-righting a newer file. That's probably a good habit to create, anyway.
Your cloned backups are even easier to
VERIFY, if somewhat more time consuming. Generally, a cloning app creates a bootable copy of your entire System. Therefore, just open System Prefs, select the "Startup Disk" tab/icon (you may be asked to enter your Admin/computer password) and select the drive that has your cloned backup. Now click the "Restart..." button and go get a cup of coffee/tea (hot or iced). This Restart will probably take longer than a normal one depending on how fast the connection to your external drive is. Congratulations!