So, your computer crashed? Bummer! You probably are thinkng all of your files, your photos, your pictures and everything else are lost., because the only way to fix your kind of crash is to reinstall the operating system, which will clear all of your files.

But, my friend, we can back up your essential files like your documents and pictures before we reinstall the operating system.

Hopefully, you have another PC that works. First, what you are going to do, is on that PC, you are going to go to http://knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html. There, download the latest version of Knoppix from one of the many available mirrors. If you do not know what the latest version is, check the Knoppix homepage. Knoppix is an easy to use Linux distribution that will allow us to backup your important files before we reinstall your OS.

After you are done with the download, go ahead and burn the ISO image to a CD-R. Most burning programs like Nero or NTI can do the trick. You can also burn it onto a DVD, if you can. If you canburn it onto a DVD, then burn it onto a DVD, because this will serve us better later.

Next, on the broken computer, you are going to need to change your BIOS settings. How to do this varies on what kind of PC you have, but on most, it’s holding Delete while the computer is starting up.

When you get into your BIOS settings screen, find where you can change your boot order. Change it to CDRom>Hard Drive>Removables.

Then, insert the Knoppix CD you made and restart your computer.

When the computer boots up, it will boot up your CD drive first instead of your hard drive. Then, a Knoppix screen will appear. Press Enter to start it up. Be sure your flash drive is plugged in, as Knoppix recognizes and install drivers for all of its devices while it starts up.

When Knoppix has successfully completed starting up and you see a desktop, you should see some hard drives on your Desktop. Depending on how many partitions you have, you should see plenty. Click on each hard drive, until you find one that has a folder called Windows in it. Congratulations, you found your old main drive.

With Knoppix, you can see the files on your hard drive and copy them onto your desktop, but cannot remove them or modify them on the hard drive. Nor can you add files.

Now, find the folder where you can access your Documents, Photos and Music. For XP users, this can be found under Documents and Settings, then your name. For Vista users, this can be found under Users and then your name.

Then, find all of the stuff you want to backup. Select them, and drag them to the desktop. When you drag then onto the desktop, a little menu should appear. In that menu, click “Copy Here”. Note that you can only store 4.5GB of data with Knoppix, or 8GB if you burned it onto a DVD. That’s the advantage of burning it onto a DVD instead of a CD-R.

On your desktop, after all of the files you want have been copied, find the drive on the Desktop that is your flash drive. Then, drag all of your backed up files onto it. This will transfer your files onto the flash drive.

After all of your files you want backed up are on the flash drive, then unplug it, and use the Knoppix menu to turn off your computer. Then, turn it back on and insert your operating system disk. Since our BIOS is still set to boot the CD drive first, it will boot up your installation disk. Install your operating system.

When your Operating System is done installing, you can copy all of your files from the flash drive onto your new operating system. And you’ve successfully fixed your computer crash, while backing up all of your files!

With the BIOS, you can leave it so it starts the CD drive first. This is because if the CD you have in the drive is not bootable, like a game disk, it will not boot from the CD drive, and will proceed to boot up your hard drive. The checking only adds on around 5 seconds to your boot time.

Thank you for reading my guide, and I hope you can successfully solve your computer crash.

Happy Computing!