Although laptop insurance will cover the replacement cost of a laptop that has suffered accidental damage or has been stolen, you can potentially lose all of the documents and data that you have stored on your computer.

Backing up your hard drive can solve this problem. By purchasing a portable hard drive, an external hard drive or flash drive, you can rest assured knowing that you have a copy of everything that you hold dear. You can easily make it a habit to backup your information at the end of each laptop session — many drives even have a button that you can simply press to do so.

There are plenty of individuals that also handle sensitive information that needs to be copied in a secure manner. An external drive can come equipped with a firewall and password for encryption purposes. This makes backing up an indispensable process.

In tandem with your new external hard drive, automatic copying software is helpful such as Second Copy. This will run an automatic daily copy of your computer onto the hard drive.

Imaging this – your laptop insurance has got you your laptop back after a catastrophic accident – and with your external hard drive back up you just copy your files across to your new computer and away you go!