On Mon, 12 Dec 2016 21:56:35 -0500, Jason wrote:

On Mon, 12 Dec 2016 22:13:37 -0400 "pjp"
wrote in article

For most the only way of determining this is to actually try and
restore the backup. This means on original pc the original system gets
overwritten. That's not viable as it puts that system at risk


The system is already "at risk" if that doesn't work, so what's to be
lost?

Surely you see the difference between a currently working system that
may or may not have a viable backup and a system that's been completely
trashed by trying to restore a mangled backup?

I'm with pjp on the scenario that he described. A better way, but not so
practical for a whole lot of people, is to temporarily install a spare
drive and restore to that. Most people are not going to go there, so
using the backup program to 'verify' each backup is about as good as
it's going to get, unfortunately.