[HLUG] Power cuts UPS recomendations?

[dicegeorge at hotmail dot com]

Every time my house electric supply trips out
my laptop continues on batteries and hibernates,
But my desktop ubuntu PC stops,
possibly damaging the hard disk.

A UPS might slow this down,
but I have no experience of UPS'es.

Is there a way for a UPS to signal to the desktop PC to go into hibernate 
mode?
If so I would only need a small cheap UPS to provide battery power for a few 
minutes.

I see one for £125 on ebay, that's more than the hard disk cost!
(but my data is invaluable)
(stop woffling george)
(ok)
~
~  [g]  ~  [george]