The user who backs up everything constantly also is likely to have these backups in various forms (tape, hardrive, and CD). To accomplish this can require costly hardware as well as taking lots of time. This type of user is usually heard bragging about the latest hardware they have purchased to accomplish the task. Also they will most likely assail you with tales of how many times they were saved from a great disaster, because of their backups efforts.
A user on the other extreme probably has never backed up! Or they may have quit the process because of the time involvement. There may also be the resistance to spending the money required when they could use it for other more "useful equipment." Also, there may be the belief that it is a waste of time and money. Those with this frame of mind probably hope that it will not be needed in their case. This is usually fueled by the belief that they can't afford the proper equipment, and that is takes too much time from their computing efforts.
For the first user, we can only say keep up your efforts, and we're glad for you (as we get out of earshot)! For the second user, we can feel pity for and maybe try to encourage them to do something, anything!
The truth is that the second user will probably end up using more financial resources and spending more time trying to recover from a computer crash than if he had just done something! Probably a majority of computer users could save themselves from total disaster, if they just had an inexpensive tape drive backup and a simple plan.
The key is to get the entire drive backed up at least once. Depending on the type of drive, it may take one more tapes. If you add to this a tape on which you just back up the changed data, you will have covered most disasters. The most time you will spend is on the initial backup. The daily or weekly backup of the changed data should take very little time to do. It will take time, but that amount of time will certainly be less than that which is required if there isn't any backup. Even with this plan you can lose data, but you will not LOSE IT ALL!!
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