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Overview -> Diagnostics -> Linux Live Repairs -> Simple

Having random problems with your computer, but not sure what could be the cause?  Here are a few things you can do to check some basic areas and it'll only cost you the price of a CD or even as little as just time & patience if you have a flash drive handy.  You'll need to first pick a distribution of Linux to use.  Although there are numerous selections to choose from, a great resource for picking the best one for you is Distro-Watch.  Along the right side is a "Page Hit Ranking" where you can see the most popular versions.  Remember that, normally, the more people using the distribution you choose the more help is available on the web.  For this article we'll be using Linux Mint, which comes with most of the simple tools you need ready to go.

First download the Live CD for Linux Mint.  If you are confused on the many options you have, the 32-Bit Live CD, or the standard version is the most compatible with older and newer computers.  Once, you have downloaded the ISO file, you can burn this to a CD with InfraRecorder or copy it to a flash drive with UNetbootin.  (Note: use either a blank flash drive or backup your data, because everything will be erased from the flash drive)  UNetbootin can actually download the latest copy of a selected distribution and then prepare your flash drive with a live CD image.  Or MultiBooISO can make your flash drive boot several different versions at once.  There is a chance, if it is older, that your computer may not support booting from a flash drive, if you find this to be the case you can still use a CD to boot the computer and perform the simple tests.

After burning the Live CD or preparing a Live Flash Drive, restart the computer with the CD in the drive or the flash drive plugged into the computer.  You should see an "automatic boot" screen, if so press any key to see the menu of choices for booting the CD  If you do not see the "automatic boot" screen and your computer continues to boot normally, you must configure your BIOS to boot from either a CD-drive or flash-drive if the option is available  Once you have arrived at the menu, our first test can begin. 

Select "Memory Test", a blue screen should show up and detail a bunch of information about the RAM in your system.  If you see a bunch of "errors" during the tests, you need to replace a stick of RAM.  If you have multiple sticks, test them all one at a time, and in multiple slots RAM slots to be sure it's the RAM stick and not the slot it is inserted in.  RAM errors can range from the system not starting at all to strange problems that appear random or with no discernible pattern.  RAM is also one of the most common pieces of hardware to go bad as well as normally the easiest to replace.  You'll know a stick of RAM has passed the all of the tests when the number under the "Pass" column changes to "1 or more".  You can also run this test for as long as you'd like, I have seen bad RAM test good on the first pass or two, but it is fairly uncommon to make it past test #5 with a bad RAM stick.

The second test will require you to select from the boot menu again, restart your computer and this time select "Start Linux Mint".  (Note: if you have problems starting normally, try selecting the compatibility mode.)  Depending on your computer's hardware, it may take some time to load up to the desktop.  If the computer does boot to a desktop, however, that means the majority of your hardware is good.  The desktop is a full-blown operating system, meaning you can do pretty much anything you could do with your computer before, as long as your hardware is automatically supported.  Run a few programs and test things out, this will not only familiarize you with the Linux environment, but will also be testing your computer for problems.  If your system has been locking up randomly for example, booting the Live environment and performing a variety of tasks should put enough load on the system to lock it up.  If the system does freeze, turn it off and try dusting out the power supply and / or CPU fan with compressed air.

Now that your booted into the Live environment, you can test, repair, and recover your hard drives to the fullest extent.  When you normally boot off your hard drive, your computer has "locked" several files.  While they are in use, it is almost impossible to remove them while running Live on your own hard drive.  First open "Computer", there will always be a hard drive icon called "File System", the other hard drive icons should be the drives inside of your computer, which may be separated into several partitions.  Browse or use the search feature to look through the hard drives and be sure to backup any important data now if you can.  Dying hard drives can be hit and miss, this boot could be your last time seeing this information, better to play it safe and back it up now.  You can either plug in an additional USB hard drive to copy the information or use the built in CD burning software (just insert a blank CD to start, though it might not be possible if you're running the CD version)

If you already have your important data backed up, then lets continue on to our next test.  Click the start menu and type "GParted" into the filter box or navigate to "All applications"->"Administration"->"GParted" and open the program.  This will display all the hard drives in your computer, but please apply caution this program makes it very easy for you to erase everything with a few clicks.  This just means read everything the program is trying to tell you, don't just click at random and if you don't understand something clearly search Google or ask for help.  Find the drive you are looking to check in the drop down menu at the top right corner of the program.  If there is more than one partition on the drive, right click on the largest one.  Select the "Check" option from the menu, if the option is "grayed-out" select the "Unmount" option and try right clicking it again.  You should see a message come up saying "Check and repair file-system...".  Finally click the apply, read the warning and click OK to proceed.  This will perform a fairly quick and simple test on the partition and possibly will repair minor issues with the file system.

That concludes this part of the simple tests you can perform with a Linux Live CD or flash drive.  There are a number more places you can test and other things to do in the Live desktop, but there are numerous distributions of Linux that focus solely on system diagnostics and repair as well.  If your system is still not working properly, you can try one of these versions Parted Magic or System Rescue, both will have further documentation and suggestions to follow.  If you have all of your important data backed up and want to try something new; you could try wiping it clean and install your selected version of Linux instead, most all of the Live desktops will have an "Install" option which are normally pretty easy to walk through and quick to have fully up to date and working system.  If you run into problems, have questions or suggestions, please let me know.