[Chaz]

Tom, that's terrible.
I hope you have a decent number of your pics spread around here and Yahoo.
I'm a total n00b as far as computers are concerned, and I've never trusted these things from day one.
Do you have a way to transfer your future pics to a CD? I'm not exactly sure on the terminology, but I think a CD Writer and a Card Reader will handle that.
I've been putting my pics on discs for a couple years now so I can look at them on TV via a DVD player and bore my friends with my Dobie and vacation photos.
Check with a Computer Repair expert, he just might be able to salvage some of your pics.

 

[Chaz]

I don't wait until I have enough to fill a disc. Every time I erase a photo card (I think that's what they're called, the thing that goes inside the camera) I put the pictures on a disc. I just saw in the Sunday paper where CDRs are on sale $18/100, or 18 cents each. I've gotten as many as 200 on a CD, but some of my discs have as few as one or two photos on them.

 

[Chaz]

It wasn't that long ago we had to pay to have pictures developed. And a roll of film was only good for 24 or maybe 36 shots, and I had no way of knowing I had taken 36 bad pictures until I paid $10 and waited a week!