To conduct a legitimate test of your backup system, simply viewing the backed up files on a removable hard drive is not enough. A good practice would be to create a test once a year where, for all your mission-critical applications, you run your business using the backup files as the primary data source. This should be done with your portfolio management, contact management, and imaging systems, along with any other applications that are critical to your business. Running these tests might take a little more time, but it is definitely worth it to confirm that your backup process is operating correctly. Do it now; don't wait.