Reading the Safety Score
The Safety Score is the number on the Dashboard, 0 to 100. It answers one question: how much of your recovery has actually been proven?
Not how many backups have run. Not whether the last one said "success." Proven, meaning VaultGuard has checked it, pulled real files back out of it, and compared them to the originals. A backup that ran last night but has never been restore-tested can't score well, because nobody knows yet whether it works. That's the whole idea.
What's in the number
The score is built from eight things. Each one earns points when it's been proven, and the big points go to the things that matter most on a bad day.
The backup exists. A full backup of this computer has completed.
The backup has a fingerprint. When a backup is made, VaultGuard records exactly what it looks like, so it can tell later if anything changed.
The backup has been checked. Check for Changes compared the backup to its fingerprint and nothing had changed.
The backup has been restore-tested. Real files were pulled back out of the backup and matched the originals. This is the biggest piece of the score by a wide margin, because it's the only one that proves the backup works.
A second copy exists. Your backup has been copied to another drive or a folder your cloud service syncs.
The second copy has been checked. Same idea as the backup check, on the copy.
The second copy has been restore-tested. Files pulled back out of the copy matched too.
A recovery drive has been made. The USB stick that starts the computer when Windows won't. It's the last few points, and you can't reach 100 without it, because a backup you can't boot to is a backup you can't use.
Why the number drops when nothing failed
Proof gets old. A restore test from last week says a lot. One from three months ago says less, because a lot of backups have happened since. So every point fades as its proof ages, and comes back when the test runs again. A score that drifts down a few points over a quiet month isn't a failure; it's the app being honest that the proof is getting stale. When the weekly chain runs, it climbs back.
Why the scorecard is empty
Until the first full backup completes, the scorecard shows the labels with no numbers and a line at the bottom telling you to run a backup. There's nothing to score yet, and a zero would be a claim. The moment that first backup lands, the backup piece is credited right away, before the rest of the chain finishes.
What the next-step line means
Under the score there's one line telling you the single thing that would raise it most. It's always the biggest gap, and anything at zero comes first. If it says "run a restore test," that's where the points are. If it says "make a recovery drive," everything else is in good shape and that's the last piece. When there's nothing to fix, it says so.
What "Not Proven" means on a card
The two restore-test cards can show Not Proven in red even when the task ran and passed at the time. It means no backup version currently on your drive carries a passing restore test. The usual causes: the version that was tested has since been removed by retention and the newer ones haven't been tested yet, or the drive is plugged in but has no backup on it. It's different from Pending, which is the card's way of saying a newer backup exists and its test is simply due. Either way, the next chain run settles it.
What the score doesn't measure
It can't tell whether your second copy is somewhere a fire or a thief couldn't reach. It can't tell whether your backup drive is about to fail (the drive health card does that). And it can't restore anything for you; it only tells you what's been proven. A 100 means every piece of your recovery has been tested recently. It does not mean you can skip making sure the recovery drive is somewhere you can find it.
What to do with it
Once a week, look at the number and the line under it. If the number is where you left it or higher, you're done. If it dropped and the line under it says why, do the one thing it says. That's the whole routine.