Creating backups is just one step in taking precautions that sensible data can be recovered if anything should happen to a computer’s storage device. Depending on the location they are stored in backups can also be subject to change. This can for example be the case if parts of the backup storage become unreadable.
It is therefor recommended to verify the file integrity of backups regularly to make sure that they can still be used to recover data if the need should arise. Nothing’s worse than to realize that the backups are unusable.
File Check MD5 is a small portable software for Windows that has been designed for that specific purpose. It can be used to compute MD5 hashes of all files in a specific root folder including subfolders. All computed MD5 hashes will be stored in a text file in that root folder.
The Check Files option can then be used to check files on the backup storage with the MD5 hashes of the original files to ensure data integrity.
One interesting option of the software program is to test the md5 hashes that have been previously computed if the text file is located in the same folder as the executable. It would then only be a matter of adding the File Check MD5 software and the text file with the MD5 hashes to the root of the backup to be able to automatically verify the file integrity.
The only thing that is missing is the ability to select a different storage location for the MD5 hashes. This would make it possible to run the software on read only devices as well.
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Thanks for the tip, Martin. Might I make a suggestion? It would be nice if software reviews had a small summary of critical information, such as:
1) Name of program with link to homepage
2) A _one_line_ description of what the software does
3) What OS the software runs on
4) If the software can be run from removable media, ie, if it is portable software
5) Licensing terms and cost of the software
Thanks!
Dotan the current design of the site would only allow for the information to be displayed at the bottom. I try to add the information in the article as good as I can at the moment.
Thx, but i use http://www.md5summer.org/
I agree with Dotan. I would love to see the link at the end of the page. Sometimes I read a headline and want to try the software right away, and I have to scour the article to try to locate the link. If it’s always at the end, then we, the readers, would know to just skip to the end if we want to download the software and read the article later. All the other things Dotan mentioned are good ideas too. Those you should include in your articles Martin.