Syncing iPhone with no previous backups

This is probably a really stupid question, but I'm terrified of messing anything else up. I recently had my laptop's hard drive wiped and even though the tech said he was able to put all of my data back onto my new hard drive, I've noticed a lot missing including all of my past ipod and iphone backups.

Logically I would think that I could just plug my ipod and my iphone back into my laptop and sync it with itunes (I have a macbook pro from 2009 so I have an older version of iTunes), and a new backup will be created and I'll be all set. Do I have to worry that I have no older backups though? My anxiety is telling me that I need to make a new backup as soon as possible because if anything does happen to my ipod touch or my iphone that I won't be able to back it up from a previous backup since I no longer have any. But my anxiety is also telling me that if I do plug them in and try to make a new backup, that if anything goes wrong, I'll be screwed either way.

Again, forgive me for the stupid question I'm just really nervous about doing anything on my laptop now because when I got it back it had a really old iOS on it and I've had to reinstall a newer one and pretty much start over. And I'm nervous it will think it's a new phone or something just because there are no previous backups.