Have a happier new year for you and your computer

If one of your New Year's resolutions was to cultivate a
happier computing life, these suggestions are for you.
You can take steps now to prepare for the big emergencies.
The big emergencies include complete system failures and
hard-disk failures. In either case, you will need a disk with
your computer system's information and a basic set of
utilities that you will use to diagnose your system's
problems. Because the crash will happen at the worst possible
time and no one will be able to help you, that disk (called a
"boot disk" because, in the old days of computing, programs
that were used to start computers were called "bootstrap"
programs) will enable you to start your computer and, with the
utilities in your operating system, to figure out what is
wrong. If you are lucky, you will even be able to fix your
computer automatically.

You need to make that boot disk while your system is running -
so do it now. The help files in your system will tell you how
to do it.

In reality, every time you start your computer, what you have
is a small identity crisis on your desk. What happens as your
computer cycles through its startup sequence is that it learns
what is connected to the system, the relevant specifications
of all peripheral equipment in the system that helps you do
your work, and how all of those pieces of equipment relate to
each other. If the computer does not get an answer to all of
those questions, it may stop or continue the sequence while
noting the problem with an error message on the screen.
Here is a little secret about two critical pieces of data you
may desperately need and you probably do not have. You will
need them because there is a critical time in your computer's
startup sequence when it needs to know what type of hard disk
you have and how big your hard disk is. If your computer does
not know what type the hard disk is or how big the hard disk
is, the computer may ignore the hard disk completely. Both
data are always provided in the startup sequence, either from
the hard disk or from that boot disk I just told you to make.
That information is stored on your computer in a special kind
of nonvolatile memory called the CMOS (or Complementary
Metal-Oxide Semiconductor). The CMOS is powered by a battery -
in recent systems, it is a watch battery, and in older
systems, it was a special long-life battery. If the battery
goes dead, you may lose the CMOS memory and with it, the
ability to start your computer from the hard disk.

There is a practical solution to this problem - it is called
paper. Make a written record of the settings on your computer
system, especially the hard disk type and the size of the hard
disk as stated in the CMOS memory. If you are lucky, your
computer vendor gave you a piece of paper with those system
specifications on it. It is time to find it, blow the dust off
of it so you can read it, and leap to the next paragraph. If
you do not have that piece of paper, get a blank one and join
me in the next paragraph.

You now have your piece of paper (with specifications or
blank) and you are in front of your computer. Start your
computer or press the "reset" button and watch the screen.
There will be a message stating "Press (something) for setup"
that (something) is what you press. You will be in the setup
program of your computer. Depending on the configuration of
your computer, what you want may be on that first screen. But
go through all the menus - every one - and write down all the
data you see. Do not change anything unless you want to do so
and you know the consequences. Chances are that you will not
be able to change any setting unless you confirm the change
several times. But that is why you are making a written
record. Someday, you will thank yourself.