Q:

How do I do this? Do I need a professional?

A: Today’s huge hard disks can be sliced up in a zillion different ways by dividing them into partitions. In plain language, a partition is simply a portion of the drive’s space.

Some people divide their computer’s hard drive into a single huge partition — the C: partition — and work from there. Others like to divide their hard drive into two or more partitions, keeping Windows on the C: partition, and saving the D: partition for bulky files like digital photos, movies or music.

In your case, you want to delete your D partition, and expand the C partition to fit the entire drive. Windows XP can’t handle this task by itself, but Windows Vista and Windows 7 can both handle the job fairly easily when you follow these steps:

1. Copy everything you want to save from your D: drive to your C: drive. (Or back it up to CDs or DVDs, because deleting the a partition erases its files.)
2. Click the Start button, right-click Computer, and choose Manage.
3. When the Computer Management window appears, choose Disk Management from the Storage area.
4. Right-click your D: partition and choose Delete Volume from the pop-up menu as shown below. (Click Yes at the confirmation prompt.)



5. Right-click your C: partition and choose Extend Volume from the pop-up menu.
6. When the Extend Volume Wizard appears, click Next at the opening screen, then click Next again to expand the C: drive to fill the room left by the now-deleted D: drive.
7. Click Finish to tell the Extend Volume Wizard to finish the job of extending the C: drive to fill the available space.

When you’re through, your C: partition will consume your entire drive.

Q:

A: The simplest way to disable the Caps Lock key is to whittle down a small wine cork or pencil eraser, and slide it beneath the key so it can’t be pressed. A small piece of folded cardboard might work, as well.

It’s a simple trick that’s worked well for me. That said, you can find some programs to disable the Caps Lock key on the Internet.

Q:

A: A group of companies created “Bluetooth” as a way of creating “cable-less” gadgets. Wireless computing, lets you connect to the Internet from several hundred feet away; Bluetooth, by contrast, has a range of a few feet. But that’s fine for a mouse, cell phone, keyboard, or other commonly used gadgets.

Many laptops come with Bluetooth built-in. To give your desktop PC those same Bluetooth powers, simply plug a Bluetooth adapter into one of your desktop PC’s USB ports. Available on Amazon and many computer stores, the adapters let your PC exchange information with Bluetooth devices like your mouse. Bluetooth adapters are fairly inexpensive, and since they plug into a USB port, you can also easily move it to whichever of your PCs you happen to be using at the time.

Q:

A: Yes, you can use the same wireless router with both your old desktop PC and your new Acer laptop. Most wireless routers support dozens of simultaneous wireless connections. You just need to enter the same wireless information into your laptop that you entered into your desktop PC, specifically, the wireless signal’s Name (SSID) and security type (WEP, WPA, etc).

Q:

A: Deleting everything on your hard drive, or reformatting your hard drive doesn’t truly eliminate its information. Many data recovery specialists can still recover the files, a fact handy to know if you’ve accidentally wiped out your entire hard drive.

To really erase your information, you need to write new information on top of it. In today’s world of exponentially increasing identify theft, many free programs on the Internet offer to overwrite your data with zeros or random numbers.

Some programs overwrite it many times, truly smashing the data. The Department of Defense 5220.22-M specifications call for data to be overwritten three times with different characters each time. The best data killers write over your data seven times, but that’s probably overkill unless you’re James Bond.

The free program Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) does a fantastic job of detecting hard drive from a wide variety of manufacturers, and scrubbing them completely clean of data. DBAN works by creating either a bootable floppy, CD or DVD that you place in your PC’s disk drive. When you restart your PC, it loads from the disk, not the hard drive, letting DBAN do its work. It renders your data useless, both to you and the vast majority of data recovery specialists.

Once you wipe the drive clean, reinstall your copy of Windows, place your original Windows CD into the box with your PC, and ship them both to a charity, knowing your TurboTax files won’t fall into the hands of strangers.

(The above information is taken from my book, PCs: The Missing Manual.)

A: If only it was that simple.

First, a bit of background. For years, Windows ran in 32-bit mode, meaning it could access up to 4 GB of memory. And that was plenty of memory for most PCs. But as PCs and programs grew more powerful, 4 GB seemed downright skimpy. Changing with the times, Microsoft began offering Windows in two flavors, 32-bit to run on PCs with normal amounts of memory, and 64-bit for the more powerful (and expensive) PCs that came with more than 4 GB of memory.

Your 64-bit version of Windows can run both 32-bit or 64-bit programs, so there’s no problem there. Unfortunately, a 64-bit version of Windows needs 64-bit drivers — the tiny bits of software that work as translators between Windows and your PC’s parts.

As you’ve discovered, 64-bit drivers are still rather rare. Since none of Sprint’s Air Cards cards have worked on your PC, those drivers were most likely 32-bit, not the requisite 64-bit.

So, you have three ways to solve your card problem:

• Tell Sprint’s customer support person that you need an Air Card that’s compatible with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista. If you’re lucky, they can find you a compatible card.
• Switch to a different carrier that carries cards with 64-bit drivers.
• If those fail, you need to buy and install a 32-bit version of Windows Vista, a process that wipes your hard drive clean. (Be sure to back up your files.) Then you’ll be able to install Sprint’s Air Cards without problem.

Unfortunately, the 32-bit version of Windows can only access 4 GB of memory, whereas the 64-bit version can access a lot more. For people who require lots of memory, 64-bit is a must. But if you don’t mind limiting yourself to 4 GB of memory — which is plenty for most Windows Vista programs — a reinstall might be your ticket to a working Air Card.

Tip: Not sure which version of Windows you’re using? Click the Start button, right-click Computer or My Computer, and choose Properties. Look in the System section for either 32-bit Operating System or 64-bit Operating System. Microsoft’s support site lists more information about 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows.

Do you know of any way (or any company) that could help me salvage this printer so it works with my Windows Vista laptop? Hewlett Packard says there isn’t any software available. I’ll be avidly awaiting your reply.

A: Hewlett Packard sells hundreds of different printers, and they’re often quite similar to each other. Since the different printer models often share the same parts and features, you can often substitute one model’s Vista driver for another printer model.

So, you’re in luck: According to the Installing and Configuring an Alternate Driver in Windows Vista page on Hewlett Packard’s Web site, your printer will work fine using Vista’s own, built-in drivers. You don’t need to download anything.

There’s only one trick to make your printer work: When you install the printer, tell Vista you’re installing a “Deskjet 5550″ model, instead. Those drivers should let you use your Photosmart 7350 printer in Vista.

The page I’ve linked above gives you complete step-by-step instructions.

Five minutes later it starts all over again. It’s really bothersome because it’s right in the middle of the screen. I can’t close it out because my mouse arrow goes under the box. Should I call someone? Is my monitor broken? It’s not even two years old! Help me please!

A: The problem lies with your monitor, unfortunately. I can sympathize, as mine does the same thing. Monitor manufacturers use really cheap buttons for adjusting the monitor’s brightness, contrast, color, and other settings. The buttons turn on and off by themselves.

I removed my monitor’s case and stuck a guitar pick in front of the circuit board. The guitar pick bends the circuits just enough so the buttons don’t flip on quite as often. It’s not a perfect fix, but it’ll let me get a few more months out of my monitor. (Monitors are cheaper to buy new than repair.)

Eventually, I’ll get frustrated enough to buy a new one. Wish I had better news.