Why the World should use 'Time Machine'

So...


Yesterday afternoon, my 2009 MacMini froze and would not reboot.


"Not to worry" I thought. I have a script that shuts down Time Machine at 9am, but turns it on at 9pm - in effect forcing it to do a daily backup without crushing the performance of the Mac during the day.


So I inserted the OS disc (Lion) and restored the drive. I've never had to do this before, but its awesome - took 4.5 hours, but that seems fair given the amount of stuff on it.


Everyone should have Time Machine - or buy a Mac to get it. I've always assumed it would work, but never needed to test it.


The end result is I've lost a few client files I was working on, but nothing major.


The only question that remains is - am I right in thinking that the HDD is on its way out - it kept hanging on boot-up, but did not show errors in Disk Utility? The restored system seems fine, so I can't imagine its a logic board/RAM thing.