multiple times it has showed me that theres an update available or smth like that but whenever i tried updating it an error came up, eventually the updates didnt even show up anymore, so if now i wanted to update it i wouldnt know how
Viewing post in i cant use linux for the life of me
Your things should all be in /home and wherever you saved your downloads or whatever custom folders you created.
If you can make a backup of the data, I suggest you do that and think about installing a new linux distribution from sratch.
You seem unfamiliar with debian, so you might want to take the opportunity to switch to some more userfriendly options. I hear good things about Ubuntu in that regard.
The reason to make a backup, apart from the obvious, if you do an install, your file system might get wiped, if you press certain buttons.
You can also incrementially upgrade your Debian, but that might take some time. The recommended procedure is to upgrade 5 to 6 and then to 7 and then to 8 .... till you arrive at 12.
The commands are different for an upgrade. It is not the same as an update. Updating means, to fetch the newest versions in your update channel. Which might be version 5, stable. Or something like that. What you need is an upgrade from that channel to the next version.
You can google how to do that https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+upgrade+debian+5+to+6&ia=web
But seriously, consider switching to a more user easy to use linux distribution. Debian is not geared towards casual users.