Back in '96-'00 I worked large corporate IT (IS back then). As part of our disaster recovery plan, we did quarterly test restores on a large percentage of our servers. It was a pretty big deal, involving creating a test environment with its own hardware and isolated network. Lots of hours, lots of dollars spent on equipment.

I don't know of anybody who tests backups regularly on home PCs, or even in small to medium-sized businesses.

Several years ago, however, when I first installed my backup software, I did a restore just to make sure I had everything I needed should disaster strike. I had everything backed up, had time on my hands to reinstall everything if necessary, and I wanted to be sure of procedures. I've since restored twice following the same steps as that initial test.

I would recommend everybody consider going through the process at least once before you need it.