how do i backup my iphone 4s to the laptop

Hi Rainman5567,

Welcome to the Support Communities!

The information below may be able to answer your questions about how to backup your iPhone with iTunes:

iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766

Use iTunes

You can use iTunes to back up and restore your content on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Note that iTunes and iOS do not support installing backups of newer versions of iOS onto devices using earlier versions of iOS.

Back up

To back up the content on your iOS device, follow these steps:

1. Make sure your computer has the latest version of iTunes.
2. Connect your iOS device to your computer.
3. Choose File > Devices > Back up.
   If you're using iTunes 10.7 or earlier, right-click the device from the list and choose Backup Now.

You can also back up by syncing your iOS device with your computer. When you use iTunes to sync, backing up is the first step.

To verify that the backup finished successfully, open iTunes Preferences and select the Devices tab. You'll see the name of the device along with the date and time iTunes created the backup.

Cheers,

- Judy