It's interesting the things you learn about your backup system when the time comes to restore from it. For example, I once learned the hard way that the image file I'd created flat-out didn't work on the new hard drive I'd installed. (Why? I never did figure it out, which is why you should always do a "test restoration" whenever implementing a new backup system.) And recently I discovered a weird, annoying anomaly in the way Mozy restores files.

Specifically, after using Mozy's Restore Manager (a small utility intended solely for restoring files) to download my Word documents to my new PC, I discovered that each file's creation date (a.k.a. "Date modified") had been altered to today's date. That might not be a big deal for certain kinds of files, but I frequently need to know when a particular document was authored.

Why does this happen? I have no idea, but it's a bug that needs fixing. In the meantime, there is a way to make sure your file dates remain intact: Use the Mozy client software, not Restore Manager, to handle the restoration. (If you're working on a new PC like I was, you'll probably want to install that anyway.) That's according to a Mozy employee who . And I'm happy to report my tests bear this out.

Contributing Editor writes about business and consumer technology. Ask for help with your PC hassles at , or try the treasure trove of helpful folks in the .