According to research by Symantec, the average laptop has an estimated £500,000 of data stored on it. The security giant believes emails and confidential documents eclipse the actual value of the hardware itslef.

While this might be true for some business laptops use, we find it hard to imagine any home user being able to make a claim for anywhere near half a million pounds should the worse happen.

It’s an interesting thought though – just how much would you lose if your laptop (or even your desktop PC) was stolen?

Along with regular backups, we recommend investing in some form of network attached storage. You can then hide this away from your PC, leaving it less prone to theft.

If you’re looking for a simple network storage solution, Netgear’s SMC101 (read a review here), is worth considering.