presented by Desktops  How to Survive the Worst PC Disasters  PC
disasters. Illustration: Edwin Fotheringham When it comes to
computers, sometimes things go south...and sometimes they go to
Antarctica. If your computer won't boot or your data's gone
astray, panic is soon to follow, and you might find yourself
making things worse in your haste to solve the problem.  To
prepare for that inevitable day, save this article: The next
time some piece of hardware or software decides to take an
unexpected vacation, pull out and consult our handy guide to see
how to deal with some of computing's most devastating debacles.
Of course, this advice won't solve every tech-related problem
you may come across, but it includes some neat tricks that you
may not have thought of, such as freezing a bad hard drive to
get it to boot one last time so you can retrieve your data,
baking your wet mobile device in an oven set on low to make it
functional again, and putting a delay on your outbound e-mail so
you have a chance to reconsi