Caring for your laptop

Please note, we are in the process of moving documents to Service Centre Online (DETE staff only).

To locate documents:

Go to Service Centre Online and type the name of the document (or subject matter) into the search field.
Click search.

On this page:

Backing up
Managing your documents
Caring for your laptop's battery

There are various ways you can uphold your responsibility to care for and maintain your laptop.

Secure your laptop at school, in transit and at your home.

Ensure your laptop is in a clean, operational state. Cleaning guidelines (PDF, 44k) are available.

Use your laptop in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions, at all times.

Report issues or problems affecting the use of your laptop to your school's Orange Card holder or the Service Centre.

Report a stolen or damaged laptop to your principal as soon as possible.

Backing up

As your work increasingly relies on ICT, it is important that you regularly backup the files stored on your laptop.

If you don't and your laptop is stolen or crashes, you may lose all the work stored on your machine.

It's best to back up:

on a regular basis
on return or re-issue of a laptop
before carrying out a laptop's restore, recovery or rescue process
before a laptop is disposed of.

Detailed instructions for backing up data (PDF, 556k) on a PC laptop are available.

Also available are instructions for backing up files to a new or restored PC laptop (PDF, 104k) and instructions for backing up emails(PDF, 203k).

Backing up data on a Dell laptop

For instructions on backing up data on a Dell laptop (PDF, 668k)

Also available are instructions for backing up, transferring and restoring archived emails on a Dell laptop (PDF, 754k)

USB memory sticks

USB memory sticks are a common tool used to backup data on your laptop.

By inserting the USB memory stick into an available USB port, it becomes a 'removable disk', allowing you to save data.

USB hard drives

USB hard drives are becoming cheaper and hold several terabytes of data.

Their greatest advantage is the speed of data transfer and their small physical size.

DVD and CD writers

If you use the DVD writer built into your laptop, you can backup files to either CD or DVD.

As some backup devices such as CDs, USB memory sticks and hard drives have limited memory capacity, you must ensure the device is large enough to store your data.

You can check the size of a file or folder by:

selecting the files or folders
right-clicking (Mac users can select Control and then click their mouse) on the selected items
selecting Properties (for PC laptops) or Get Info (for MacBooks).

The size of the files or folders will be displayed on the General Tab.

Where to next?

After you have backed up your data:

keep the backup devices in a safe place, separate from your laptop bag
transfer all backed up files and folders to your laptop, if you have carried out a rescue, restore or recovery process
transfer backed up files and folders to a new laptop, if your laptop has been disposed of or replaced.

Managing your documents

Effective document management is essential to good computer practice.

It allows you to keep track of where your data is stored, and make it easier for you to access your work.

To effectively manage documents saved on your PC laptop:

store your files in My Documents - your laptop is set up to automatically save your files to "d:" drive, which retains data if you need to reinstall software on your machine (this can protect your data)
remember where your files are saved
place your files into a specific subfolder that you have named appropriately.

If you use a MacBook:

store your files in Documents - your MacBook is set up automatically to save your files to the Documents folder
remember where your files are saved
place your files into a specific subfolder that you have named appropriately.