Is it neccessary to back up laptops?

I never used to back up my pc files but I've recently heard that after a few months, laptops somehow wipe all files off the hardrive.
Can anyone offer me any help about this.
I would like to know: if it happens, how should I back up etc. Thanks.

 

Steve Jones is correct. I never heard of such a thing, I have had 4 laptops, all secured with 8 character sign-ins.

 

Is it neccessary to back up laptops?

YES-YES-YES.

Gotta ride the same train as Steve on this one.

I do not think a Laptop is any different than a desktop as far as making backups goes. The files on either can be here today and gone tomorrow.
Backing up things is why I have more than one HD partition and a CD. Programs such as Quicken are backed up not only on another partiton but also on a CD.
Also a backup can help recover from USER mistakes of which I have made a few. OOPS !! I did not mean to delete those files.
In fact I have things such as my Favorites list on a CD.

BillyBob

PS.
There is an old ( at least 70 years old ) saying that I think would fit here very nicely.
"Don't put all of your eggs in one Basket. " If you do make DARN sure you do not drop the basket. "

BB

 

To answer the question of how to back up...it depends on what you want to back up.

If you want to keep backups of your data...documents, pictures, music, email messages, addresses, etc...one way is just to burn them to a CD or DVD regularly. If you don't create a lot of data, once a month should suffice. If you make a lot of changes often, weekly, even daily, is necessary.

Vista has a built-in backup feature. Use "backup" (without the quotes) as the search term in Start>Help and Support. There's lots of information there to get you started.

 

What has that got to do with the original Question ?
Which was "Is it neccessary to make backups. "

Unless one laptop is a backup for the other.

I think this post should possibly be revised a little bit and maybe even moved to a different section as it can relate to any OS or Type of PC.

I believe it relates more to THE USE of them. And data protection.

misss135

My replies come from hands on bad language making experience.

PLEASE. make some backups for yourself. Preferably in your case on a CD.

Steve R Jones is also correct about this.

BillyBob

 

misss135...A laptop and desktop are both computers, and if the right malware (virus, trojan, etc.) comes along and gets into your computer (and past your anti-virus/anti-spyware/firewall I hope you have installed!??? Do you?), it does not matter if it's a desktop or a laptop.

 

CrunchDude brings up another very good reason to make and keep backups on something other than the main HD.

Kinda hard to get to them when they are sitten up on a shelf.

BillyBob