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Q: I purchased a HP laptop 2 years ago, my boyfriend also purchased the same one @ the same time. My hard drive started acting wierd, (Vista 32bit) and then the CD drive would not work. A friend of mine totally wiped out the hard drive. I would like to know if I could take the hard drive out of mine and put it in his and reformat it with his discs and then put it back in mine and it would work? What do you think? I don’t want to do anything to mess his up! 

– Cheryl R.
Fort Walton Beach, Fla

 A: Unfortunately no, Cheryl.  If you remove the hard drive from your boyfriend’s machine, you remove the operating system and the ability for the machine to boot-up.  Putting your drive in his machine would put his in the same basic condition as yours is.  What you need to do is obtain a full Windows installation CD, and configure your laptop to boot from the CD.  That will re-install Windows onto your existing hard drive.  Your computer should have either come with one, or offered you the ability to create one when you first purchased it.  If you don’t have the disk, you might be able to create one from your boyfriend’s computer and recover your own.  If that fails, try contacting HP and ask them about recovery options.

Q: I took about 200 pictures at an event almost four years ago. When I was taking the last picture I started having trouble and pushed buttons I thought would correct the problem. Instead of fixing the problem I lost the format on the card. I have not reformatted the card because I’m afraid I will lose all the pictures.  The camera is an Olympus C-740.  The card is an Olympus XD 16MB.   Is there any way I can retrieve the pictures or are they lost forever? 

– Stacey W.
Odessa, Texas

A: This kind of thing happens, Stacey, and is one reason why we Geeks typically harp on making back-up copies of all important data files.  You did the right thing by not reformatting the card.  The chances are that most or all of your pictures are intact, and just waiting to be rescued.  There is no way to get at them using the mechanisms provided by any of the versions of Windows.  However, there are software tools out there designed to do exactly what you are trying to do.  These tools bypass the parts of Windows that normally provide the read/write services for the drive, and instead access its contents directly.  Most of the ones I’ve dealt with will tell you exactly what they can recover, then let you choose what you want, and copy the files safely to a new location.  You may have to provide all or part of the file names in order to accomplish this magic.  I don’t make a habit of recommending particular titles or products in the column, but if you’ll do a simple Google search on “flash disk recovery software” or “digital picture recovery software” you will find a myriad of choices available to you.  Many are free, but remember my axiom: you get what you pay for!