Tuesday's Tech Tip: Prepare for your PC's melt-down

What happens when you PC throws a rod, melts down or won't start up? Let's prepare for that.

First, of all let's figure out what's doin'. Does your PC have power? Do you see the BIOS screen or manufacturer logo and then it grinds away without starting?

If the answer is "no," then we probably have a power problem. Replacing your power supply is pretty easy, but we aren't going to mess with that right now.

If the answer is "yes," we've got some other problem. It could be overheated, bad RAM, crashed hard drive or corrupted Windows kernel. Or some other horrible problem. Let's prepare for that day.

1. Back up your stuff.

Back up your important stuff. You do this already, right? Right? Okay, start backing up your important stuff. An easy way to do this is to purchase an external hard drive and use something like Microsoft's free SyncToy to periodically back up important stuff. I can provide more information and advice on this if you need it.

2. Make lists.

Make a list of all the software you use. If your PC blows up you can use this list as a checklist to set up your new PC.

Also, make a list of all your logins and passwords. Web mail, your instant messenger, various websites, everything.

Put both of these lists in a safe place.

3. Download and burn the Ultimate Boot CD. Download and burn Ubuntu Desktop Edition.

Remember to burn each CD image properly. Your burning software will help you with this. Test them both out: Put the Ultimate Boot CD in your CD drive, turn off your PC and start it again. It should boot to the Ultimate Boot CD. Check the Ubuntu disc the same way.

Now, if your PC has power but won't boot, you pop in your Ultimate Boot CD, go to Memtest86+ and run it. It will tell you whether you have a RAM problem.

Do you suspect a virus problem? Run F-Prot Antivirus for DOS off of your Ultimate Boot CD.

There are tons of programs that can help identify and even fix the various problems that might've caused you PC's meltdown.

Now, suppose everything seems fine. It's just Windows that won't work. You can restore Windows, but you haven't backed up your stuff (naughty!). You have work to do and can't deal with this problem for a couple days.

What to do? Pop in your Ubuntu LiveCD. It will boot up, self-configure, mount your hard drive and wait for your imperious command. Need to open a Word document and work on it? Go for it. Ubuntu comes with OpenOffice, an open-source mimic of Microsoft Office. Just remember to save your document as a Word file when you're done. Because of Ubuntu's design, it will be easiest to save that file to a thumbdrive (that's because Ubuntu is set up not to mess with anything permanent unless you install it to your hard drive).

Go ahead and surf the web, play games, etc. All that stuff you see in the menus are compressed and live on the LiveCD. Everything is happening in RAM, which means that it will leave no fingerprints on your Windows hard drive when you turn it off.

Neat, eh? Especially because if Windows is somehow corrupted, you can fire up Ubuntu, access your files and copy them to an external hard drive to save them.

When you see how awesome -- and awesomely customizable -- Ubuntu is, you may wonder whether it's time to switch your computer's OS to Ubuntu. I already did it to two of my computers (one desktop and one laptop) and am seriously considering it for my main home desktop.

And remember: Electronics run on smoke. If you let the smoke out they won't work anymore.