The major dangers are therefore heat for the plastic and magnetic fields for the ferrous oxide. Electrical fields, magnetic devices, magnets, extremes of heat, dust, dirt, grease, moisture, or excessive use may all change or distort the information on the disk. If you have worked for three weeks preparing a term paper for a course, and you left the disk that contained the term paper in your car on a hot day, all of the information on the disk would be lost. Sometimes the information on the disk is lost for no apparent reason. If you do not care to keep the information on the disk, there is no reason to back it up.
Large companies keep and maintain three to six backup copies of important information.
Some of these are maintained in protected off-site storage facilities. You may want to keep more than one copy of your work in more than one place. A quick trick is to send yourself an email and attach the document you want to save. If the disk is formatted, it will usually appear in the upper right hand side of the desk top. If you want to change the name of your disk, click on the name and keep the mouse over the name for a few seconds.