My reading of Joemikeb's reply is that he himself doesn't perform any sort of routine maintenance, because he has a utility that does it for him. Semantics.
;-)
Anyway, if you do run maintenance routines, you have a much better chance to catch problems before they become disasters. That said, it's still a chance, not a certainty. Having an independent (= separate HD etc.) running backup system in place helps mitigate the effects of disasters.
