Backup iPad 100% - How to be sure?

The backup does not include any itunes content.

You should be importing all pics taken with the ipad to your computer regularly as you would with any digital camera.

You should be syncing contacts, calendars, notes to your computer regularly.

You should be transferring any purchases made on the ipad to your computer regularly. File>Devices>Transfer Purchases

The backup saves only the settings & data assoicated with each of the applications on the device, but not the apps themselves, or any of your media. As long as all the media content is in the library, e.g. if you normally sync the device, then restoring the backup will restore the settings and the media as they are now. Problems generally arise with those who manually manage their devices or fail to backup their libraries.

Please note there is generally only one rolling backup for the device. It may pay to periodically restore the device as this archives the restored backup (so it could be used again at a later date) and starts a fresh backup set for the device.

tt2

Assuming that you also sync your apps, or have transferred purchases then yes, the backup could be used to restore the current state of the device to it, or a replacement.

tt2

That should cover you. See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device for a more comprehensive strategy for devices that have some non-store content on them.

tt2

Back before you were able to use iPhones and iPads as standalone devices there was iTunes the media player and iPods. You added media to your library. You synced it to your device. If something went wrong you restored the device and loaded up the content again. Some people "manually manage" their devices and after loading the content to the device then delete the originals in their library to free up hard drive space. When their device goes wrong they usually have trouble restoring the device because they no longer have all the content on their computer.

From the image you've posted above it seems clear that your device has some photos that are synced from your computer, some apps which if not already on your computer can be transferred to it, the pink block should be books which again should transfer and the "other" is usually data that belongs to apps and should be saved in the backup.

iTunes normally uses one rolling backup for each device so the backup is the last known state of the device. If you want to take a snapshot of the current state of the device that could be restored, even if you then make major changes and back them up before realising, then after backing up you can immediately restore the device. This will archive the existing backup with today's date and create a new one. You can repeat every month or so and then delete older backups over time. You don't have to do this, but having only one backup gives you only one shot at recovery and I've seen posts from people who have deleted information from their devices that they wanted to recover, only to connect them to iTunes and have the backup updated, deleting that info from the backup set as well before they could rescue their data.

Sorry if this is less of a concrete "Yes that's OK" and more of a ramble. It's not actually that hard, but it is also too easy to make mistakes and they are more likely if you don't understand what is going on.

tt2

zuzullo wrote:

And yes I removed all pictures from CAMERA ROLL since apparently the backup does not include that.

Yes, the backup includes the CAMERA ROLL.

However, these should be sync'd to your computer. When you have photos in the Camera Roll, the iPhone will show up as a camera on your computer. Use your Photo management app to copy them from iPhone to computer.