Never bothered with backups or restores till a month ago. I was using a program called ViceVersa Pro, but I didn't realise all it did was back up. It couldn't restore. That program would've been ideal if a person is changing hard disks (eg: mirror the system). For a small application, it really packed a punch.
I tried Rollback and it made me feel like a network admin, so I passed. Then I tried Macrium which wouldn't fully dowload the installer before crashing. Then I came across Acronis and all the anti-Acronis comments... lmao, didn't really phase me since I am only looking to backup. I have no care for differential or incremental since I do bugger all on the PC nowadays.
Don't under-estimate the importance of backing up. Coming from a bloke who laughed at anyone who ever mentioned to him to back up, it really does get your goat when you are forced to start from scratch, especially the draiiiiiiiiiiining Windows Updates "from scratch", not to mention the custom-tailored tweaks etc...
Regardless of what application one uses, the fact remains, just like the topic author mentioned... just back it up already, sheesh! Just as important are the directories that one excludes.