[thehappychappy]

Doesn't the machine have some sort of restore mechanism?

What make and Model? What Software is pre-installed?

What does the owners handbook say for restore?

There are two primary issues here.

1: You need to be able to restore the laptop to its "as new" software image.
2: you need to be able to on a regular basis, backup your own "data" files to ensure you can restore them should the data become corrupt or deleted or lost.
2a: you also need to be able to update the software from the "as new" version to the current in support versions, normally id recommend just doing this fromn the interweb.



With regards to 1 the laptop should come with something? For 2 you need to write your data off to CDR / DVDR / usb storage as and when on a regular basis.

Does that make sense?