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Investigators continued to search the Virginia Tech Duck Pond on Wednesday, but haven't found anything, Virginia State Police spokesman Bob Carpentieri said.

It was the second day this week that a state police search and rescue team trudged through waist- and sometimes neck-deep mud, slime and water at the partially drained pond.

State police asked Virginia Tech about a week ago if they could scour the pond's bottom, but no one will say what they're hoping to find.

People visiting the pond on Tuesday suggested that police are looking for the hard drive of shooter Sueng-Hui Cho's laptop.

Witnesses told police that they saw Cho near the pond between 8:10 a.m. and 8:20 a.m. April 16.

The hard drive, which could be only 2.5 inches wide, wasn't found among Cho's possessions.

If it was thrown into the pond, it probably has been sitting in mud for two months. However, there's a good chance investigators could recover any information they want from it, said David Mohyla, president of Florida-based DTI Data. The company has helped salvage electronics damaged in Hurricane Katrina.

"Recovering a drive that's been submerged really depends on how much extra debris, other than water, has gotten in the drive," he said. "It would take probably a minimum of a week, if it's been submerged for a month."

The best scenario, if the device were found, would be to keep it wet until an expert could repair it, Mohyla said.

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and some students in Tech's fisheries department are working to help safely move the animals living in and around the Duck Pond.

Because pools of water still exist in the lower pond, the fisheries department is relocating fish from muddy areas to spots with water, said spokeswoman Julia Dickson.

The ducks are left to fend for themselves and fly to nearby water holes, she said.

A group of mussels, part of an ongoing research project, could need to be moved, said Eric Hallerman, Tech's fisheries and wildlife department head.