Can anyone out there suggest some easy (in other words, idiot proof) ways to move and store music files to an external hard drive and in one place?

What I would like to do is take all the music files from my laptop and copy them to an external hard drive and also be able to maintain music play lists and things like that.

Currently I use Windows Media Player and mainly just out of familiarity.

I'm afraid at some point I'm going to lose all of the files I've accumulated on a laptop crash.

Thanks in advance...