Here are three methods to back up your files. Using these techniques shall hopefully make sure you don't lose your important data if your laptop crashes!

Store to USB
U.S.B (universal serial bus) drives range in size from 16 MegaBytes anywhere up to 5GigaBytes and beyond. Basically you can store a lot of data on them.
Keep it plugged in while you work. If you make it a habit to keep your USB drive handy when you are working on computer projects you shall never be in danger of losing your data.
Saving to your USB drive as opposed to your computers hard drive means that the files are saved to the USB drive which physically exists outside the storage banks of your computer. This means that if your Laptop does happen to crash your files will be safe on your USB drive. Therefore all you have to do to access them is plug your USB into a working computer.

Burn to CD
Data CD's can store up to 700MB of data. Unlike USB drive's which you can save to constantly while you are working, you'll have to remember to burn your data to a CD once you have finished working.
Burning data to a CD creates a physical library of your data which can be labeled and stored in a filing system. It's not only useful for backing up your files incase of crashing, it's great for transferring your data to other computers.

Store In Cyberspace
Storing your data in cyber space is a good way to temporarily protect your files if you don't have access to a CD burner or USB drive.
Basically it involves creating two email addresses.
Either attach your documents to an email or type the text into the letter section of the email message and email it to yourself at your other address. This way you can access you files from any computer in the world that's connected to the internet! More...