It was a Mac, which most likely came with Time Machine - all she had to do was connect a USB drive (as far as I remember, OS X even asks if you want to use the drive for backups) and she would have had automatic versioned backups.

To be honest, I think most people need backing data up scared into them (e.g., I nearly lost a college project due a HD failure, and now I have multiple redundant backups).

But you still need to put the seat belt on! If you don't, your safety is compromised. So it's really up to the driver...

Both Windows and OSX come with built in backup software, but no one can force the user to use them.