4. Make sure you have complete documentation of any online services you use, such as backup software, etc. When you sign up for such services, you always get an email confirmation that contains account information. Print it out and keep it with the list in item #3. Make sure you document the logins and passwords for the online service.
5. Make sure you have a full and complete backup of your data. See my posting from 8-19-2008 – Is your data protected? If you are not the type of person to perform regular backups, sign up for Carbonite at www.carbonite.com. Take losing your data out of the equation.
6. Have a current Boot Disk for your computer. Most people do not know how to make these, and therefore don’t have one. That is totally understandable. If you know how to make one, do so. If not, let me know. Additionally, most of the major vendors do ship boot or recovery CD’s with new computers. Make sure you have yours with all of your saved software CD’s.
I know this is all a real pain to do, however, if you have gone through a crashed computer scenario you know how painful it is to recover if you do not have any of the above.