I can remember the excitement when I got my first laptop. This meant I could carry around my electronic files on a computer the same way I lug my personal items in my knapsack. Since then I have seen many people doing the same. Their shoulders sagging from the weight of laptops, they would pull out and check their e-mail, or play a game while riding the subway. But before you run out and buy a laptop you should at least consider whether the data you store on it is safe.
While laptops are as powerful as some desktops, they are not as safe or sturdy. If you accidentally drop a desktop, it might survive the shock. But you should take care not to drop a laptop because the blow could make it useless. In addition, the hard drive could crash, or a thief trying to make a quick buck could steal it. Also, you are up against the sophisticated thief who steals to get commercial and security information. This poses a vexing problem for many people who travel on business.
In the United States, many laptops disappear from cargo holds, offices, cars, and hotels. This means your data is at risk, especially if you don’t do proper backups of information on your laptops. When stolen, there is a great chance that you will never get it back. Therefore, not only are you losing your laptop but you are also losing every single thing you had stored on it, if you did not create a backup.
However, like desktop computers, you can use the same safe backup procedures to secure your important data. You can use online backup services, remote backup services, as well as backing up your data onto an external drive. The costs of these services or using an external drive will more than pay for themselves if you lose your laptop, or it suffers permanent damage.