Database backups

When I backup one of the SQL server databases, the size of the backup file
varies from 1.2, 3.6 or 9.8MB. All these backups were made w/in 30-min of
each other with only me doing testing, no other users. This makes me feel a
bit uneasy, like I'm not sure if the backups are valid. Is this normal?
How can test a backup to make sure it's complete? I mean w/o deleting the
database and doing a restore.> When I backup one of the SQL server databases, the size of the backup file
> varies from 1.2, 3.6 or 9.8MB. All these backups were made w/in 30-min of
> each other with only me doing testing, no other users. This makes me feel
a
> bit uneasy, like I'm not sure if the backups are valid. Is this normal?
Did you append backups to the same file? Have you done always the same
backups or do you have full database, transaction log and differential
backups?
> How can test a backup to make sure it's complete? I mean w/o deleting the
> database and doing a restore.
You can always restore to a new database, so this is not a problem. Check
the "How to restore a database backup (Enterprise Manager)" topic in Books
OnLine.
--
Dejan Sarka, SQL Server MVP
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