Laptop help needed-Bluescreen

[Another Castle]

I have owned my Vista laptop for a year now, but there is a problem I have been having with it- sometimes it freezes/crashes, and other times I get this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Windows_XP_BSOD.png

I was spooked when I first saw it!
Now, I am pretty naive when it comes to computers- I'm no technophobe, but I'm no expert. I feel this could be dangerous, and am a bit worried if I am going to lose my data.
What should I do to fix it? Like I said, I am naive about things like this, so I encourage you to speak to me like I am 8 years old (and not as smart as Mac!) I feel like I may be missing out on some important/obvious knowledge.

Also, my computer keeps suggesting I should back-up all my memory- how should I go about doing it? should I copy all my photos/music to a USB/disc?

[Sparky]

The link doesn't work.

Anyways, my last laptop was old and having issues and I took it in for repair, and afterwords I found out I could have at least tried to fix it myself. If you put in your operating system disc and start it up you should get access to some tools to try to repair Windows. Have you tried that?

I'm not sure what backing up memory means but you can back up your important data to an external drive. There are programs that are supposed to back up your whole system but the one time I tried to run one it didn't even work. I did have Best Buy back up my computer once and that was great, but cost a hundred dollars.

[Another Castle]

Hhmm... see if these links work:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_screen_of_death
http://jmobley123.files.wordpress.co...-of-death1.jpg