Data Integrity: a Backup is a Hope and a Prayer unless it’s a VERIFIED backup
re: data integrity
re: IntegrityChecker Java
re: backup
Any photographer or similar who fails to use use a program like IntegrityChecker Java is making a very bad move—sooner or later you will be hit by bit rot, software bugs, user mistakes, etc. Don’t get caught with your pants down, either by poor backup hygiene, or the undetectable surprise of data corruption!
re: Major Data Loss Today — But Luckily I Had Just Made Several Backups
re: Data Loss Prevented: IntegrityChecker Saves my Bacon by Detecting Corrupted Files after a Clone
re: Yet Again, IntegrityChecker Saves Me from Major Data Loss — Corrupted Files in Multiple Backups
It’s not a backup unless it’s a verified backup now and at any time.
That means all the data can be read (a physical check on the storage medium) and is cryptographicallly proven to be intact/unchanged with no files or folders missing. As well as proving that no files went missing**.
Some backup programs can (very slowly) re-read the backup vs the original. What good is that tomorrow or a month from now, when you need to know if the backup is intact? Furthermore, once you restore the backup, you can simply verify the restored data, saving you time*.
No photographer or videographer or other professional should be operating without data integrity validation. Whether bit rot or malware or software bugs or hardware problems, can you afford to remain unaware of data corruption, or to not know if your backups are intact and undamaged?
* Validating the 1st or 2nd or 27th copy of your data proves that all prior copies were themselves intact when the copy was made.
** IntegrityChecker tracks file and folder IDs and can locate files and folders that were moved, saving you much angst. It can also find duplicates, which once saved me 300GB os capacity.
Cross-platform compatibility
IntegrityChecker Java (icj) supports Mac, Windows, Linux, etc—anything with Java, an unrivalled cross-platform data integrity solution.
Switch to Windows from Mac or vice versa? No new software needed, just verify just like before!
File server or NAS? IntegrityChecker does that too—no change/difference.
Read-only media? IntegrityChecker does that too.
So long as it’s any kind of file system, IntegrityChecker has you covered—99.99% of what’s out there.