NO! Where did I leave my laptop?

Losing a laptop is a worse scenario than losing your passport, front door keys or even your mobile phone, according to the results of a silicon.com poll.

More than a third of respondents (39 per cent) said their laptop would be the most inconvenient thing to lose, given a choice which also included mobile phone (19 per cent) and birth certificate (two per cent).

Nick Cater, general manager of Northern Europe at data back-up specialist Iron Mountain, said this is because so many people now store valuable, sometimes irreplaceable data on their laptops.

Cater said: "There are some organisations which claim to store no important data on their laptops. But even people who think they don't have anything of any value on their laptops generally do.

Irreplaceable files on users' machines over the years have included everything from photographic evidence that a mountaineer had scaled the peaks he claimed to a half-written novel by comedian Dom Jolly.

"The typical user is somebody who has a local email archive and given the importance we place on email these days this can be critical."

While front door keys were rated the second most inconvenient item to lose (33 per cent), finding somebody with a spare set, or paying for the services of a locksmith, are nothing compared to the effort of replacing lost data. Likewise passports (nine per cent) and birth certificates can be replaced like-for-like.

Phil Bridge, business development manager at data recovery company OnTrack, often works with individuals who have damaged laptops and says those presented with that second chance to recover data they feared may be lost are often greatly relieved.

Bridge said some of the irreplaceable files on users' machines over the years have included everything from photographic evidence that a mountaineer had scaled the peaks he claimed to a half-written novel by comedian Dom Jolly.

But most people, not just comedians and mountaineers, have files which they consider either irreplaceable or at least highly inconvenient to replace, such as personal emails, photos and their digital music collections.

Bridge said: "Some people tell us 'I do have all the CDs but it took me 22 days to rip them all and upload them onto my laptop'."

Iron Mountain's Cater added that companies and individuals must ensure they do more to back up data. There are many services and options out there, from automatic back-up options for the enterprise to removable media and external storage devices for consumers. These, if used properly, can ensure the only problem related to a lost laptop is the replacement cost of the laptop itself.