Aspire "Acer e resource backup disks?" Help!!?

I haven't bought a new laptop since XP came out. (ancient I know) Last time my pc came with backup disks to restore in case of a problem. Acer techs claim everything is safely on the hard drive under e-management or something? They've tried to talk me through it, but I didn't have time to do it all. Has anyone done this? Please in simple everyday talk tell me how? I've been studying the manual, but it loses me! It has Vista home premium, and I love the notebook, but I want to be safe, and have hard copies. Great week everyone!