Hiya all

I was told by a friend that I should make sure I 'back up' all my software and files in case my laptop crashes and I lose everything.

I'm not really sure what this means or how to do it properly so any advice (simple as possible please) would be a great help.

You could use a program to do this such as Drive XML or you could just make a copy of all the important files you want such as your documents, pictures etc and save them on a USB drive or a CD/DVD.

Backing up your file is a excellent idea (as you may soon learn).
Especially on a Windows system
On of the best freeware programs for backing up data file is Cobian. Go to the Cobian site HERE
and you can learn all about backup plus download the latest version of Cobian FREE

For backing up your OS I recommend Acronis, however Acronis is not free but well worth the money if needed.

Okay sorry guys I'm a bit confused still.

What I need to do is make a copy of everything I have on my laptop including files, software, images, email - everything. Isn't there some kind of zip drive you can buy which just plugs into my laptop and copies everything onto it?

Sorry for being a bit thick :-/

Yes, you do need somewhere to backup your data to; zip drive, external hard drive, usb flash drive, dvd or cd, etc.
But you also need the software (programs) to perform the backup.
The two (Acronis & Cobian) I mentioned above will do an excellent job of backing up & equally important, restoring.

Okay think I get it now, thanks for the advice :-)