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The perils of locking iPod, forgetting key

Problems with the iPod can be fixed. But sometimes it wipes out the iPod's music. Since I e-mailed you, I've done some more research. Here are the things you can try to get your songs back.

Q. I'm 11 years old, and for my birthday I bought myself an iPod Touch and over seven songs I really wanted. I loved listening to them. One day I had put a (privacy locking) code on my iPod and forgot what it was. My mom and I went to the Apple Store and they told us to hit "restore" and I lost all my songs. Please send me an e-mail and give me advice.

A. As you found out, problems with the iPod can be fixed. But sometimes it wipes out the iPod's music. Since I e-mailed you, I've done some more research. Here are the things you can try to get your songs back.

If you downloaded the songs through iTunes on a computer, you can reload them onto the iPod Touch from the PC.

If you downloaded the songs via Wi-Fi to the iPod Touch and used the sync feature to give the iTunes program on your computer a list of what you bought, you should be able to restore the songs from the computer to the iPod.

If you bought the songs through the iPod's iTunes program and didn't sync with the iTunes program on your PC, then you've probably lost the songs on the iPod for good, and you'll have to buy them again. That probably seems unfair, but at least you only lost about seven songs. If you'd had your iPod longer, you might have lost even more music.

Here are a couple of other things to help you out in the future. If you ever forget your secret code again, you can unlock the iPod by syncing it with your PC. For details, see www.ehow.com/how_2273517_unlock-ipod.html.

You should also write down your passwords in a real-world notebook. This is advice I should take myself, because I have so many passwords for Gmail, Yahoo, iTunes, Facebook, Twitter and work computers that I sometimes forget them. Don't trust your memory, because there are too many things to remember.

Q. My Microsoft Outlook Express e-mail program gives French as the only spell-check language option, yet I have Microsoft Word 2007 loaded and it uses spell-check in English. How do I get English for Outlook Express?

A. Microsoft Office 2007 replaces the spell-check dictionaries of the latest version of Outlook Express with new _ but incompatible _ English, Spanish and German language files. As a result, only the French spell-check in Outlook Express works. Because Microsoft is discontinuing Outlook Express, you should download an Outlook Express-compatible spell-check program from another firm. Go to www.download.com and search for "Outlook Express spell check."

(Steve Alexander covers technology for the Star Tribune. E-mail your technology questions to steve.j.alexander@gmail.com or write Tech Q&A, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488-0002. Please include a full name, city and phone number.)

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