I try to do it often, at least twice a week, and that's come in handy. About two months ago my iPad started falsly reporting the free space, and within a few hours of doing that, the iPad had stopped working. I could see the screen, but apps would freeze even after a restart. I Deleting apps, made no difference on the amount of available space it was reporting. I was showing -100mgs of free space. I finally gave in and did the restore, and that fixed everything for me.