You need to have context before you say something like that. Just ONE of our engineering machines probably takes two or three weeks to setup from scratch due to the amount of software and configuration it requires. It has some 600GB of valuable data, without counting the OS and applications installed.

So, in that context, taking the time to make multiple redundant disk images is invaluable and, yes, very efficient. If the system drive dies and no other hardware failure is present, you can be back up and running within an hour or two. That's worth money.

> over kill for most people

Absolutely true. Every situation is different.