If you haven't done so already, you definitely want to take a look at Newsletter #6. We're talking about how to deal with Window's inevitable crashes. Remember, there's no such thing as "crashproofing" your computer. The best you can do is to be ready for when the storm hits.

Last time we talked about making paper records of your BIOS/CMOS settings, as well as backing up your data and other fun, techie things. Let's do a few more. Grab a pen and paper, take two aspirin, and go hunting for these tidbits:

• RAM: Find out how much RAM you have by going into Control Panel, clicking on System, and looking under the General tab. Write it down.
• Hard drive: For most users, the information about hard drives isn't crucial, but if you've partitioned your hard disk into multiple partitions or done something else unusual, you'll need to go through My Computer, right-click the drive letters one by one, and choose Properties for each one. Jot down the pie-graph info.
• CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive: Find out the manufacturer of your CD/DVD drive and its maximum speed; this should be somewhere in your user's manuals.
• Modem: Find out the manufacturer, the maximum speed, whether it's a V.92, V.90, X2, K56flex, or plain vanilla model, and what COM port it uses (go through Control Panel/Modems/Modem Diagnostics and click Properties). You may need to peruse your manuals some more.
• Video and sound cards: Your user's manuals should give you some info about these cards' configurations.
• Monitor: More fun with the user's manual. What's the size? The resolution? Dot pitch? Refresh rate? CRT or LCD or plasma? VGA or SVGA? Fried rice or white rice? Take two more aspirin.
• Printer: What port is it connected to, the LPT1 or another one? Go through Control Panel/Printers to access this information.

Let's do something slightly more fun and make an emergency floppy disk. Windows lets you do this relatively easily, but being a Microsoft product, the procedure isn't as simple as one might think. Grab THREE fresh formatted floppy disks and prepare to sally forth.

Shove the first disk into the slot. Go into Control Panel, click Add/Remove Programs, and click the Startup Disk tab. Click Create Disk. That's all there is to it - you would think. But it is a big step. Remove this disk, label it "Emergency Boot Disk" and set it aside.

Insert the 2nd disk into the slot. Open Windows Explorer and, in the left-hand pane, click the Windows folder. Lots of folders and files will appear in the right-hand pane. In the left pane, scroll up until you can see the A: drive in the file tree. Now, in the right-hand pane, find each of these files and, one by one, right-click them, drag them to the A: drive in the left pane, and choose COPY HERE from the resulting menu. These are the files you're copying: WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI, CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, SYSTEM.1ST, SYSTEM.DAT, SYSTEM.DA0, USER.DAT, and USER.DA0, along with every other .INI and .GRP file in your Windows folder that will fit on the disk. Make VERY sure you don't move any of these files out of your Windows folder!!! COPY ONLY! (If you accidentally do move one of the files out of your Windows folder, just move it back and try to be more careful.) Remove this disk and label it "2nd Emergency Disk."

In the next column, we'll have even more fun discussing the ERU utility (where your 3rd floppy comes into play), and figuring out how to resurrect your CD-ROM drive from the dead. Don't touch that dial!