Hello pjblevin,
Thank you for your question.
In my experience, these utilities run from floppy disks as most often
the drivers required to use a CD-ROM have not yet been installed in
the system needing formatting. Most, if not all, are small enough to
fit on a single floppy, and also complete the task much quicker than
using standard DOS utilities.
I have located what appears to be the best automated solution for you
made by Ontrack DataRecovery Services.
http://www.ontrack.com/diskmanager/
"Disk ManagerŪ 4.0
Disk ManagerŪ v4.05 is our famed Disk ManagerŪ software enhanced with
a new look, support for the latest disk drives, and features to help
you through the entire drive installation process - from correctly
connecting the drive to your system - through complete electronic
installation - to automatically migrating your files.
The exclusive Disk Manager v4.05 Worry-Free Installation and graphical
interface intelligently leads you through the entire process. No long
technical support calls, no searching through thick, complicated user
guides to find the correct jumper settings or BIOS upgrading
procedures. Whether you are a computer professional or a PC
enthusiast, install any manufacturer's hard drive with Disk ManagerŪ
v4.05!"
Disk Manager supports Windows 3X, 95, 98, ME, 200 and XP and NTFS file
systems.
Product Features
Supports installation of any manufacturers hard disk drive, including
Fujitsu, IBM, Maxtor, Quantum, Samsung, Seagate, Toshiba, and WD.
Install drives up to 137GB!
Just For You custom installation user guide - created for you
according to your needs and the requirements of your system.
Easy-to-use graphical jumper settings display provides you with the
correct jumper settings to quickly install a second (slave) drive.
Worry-free installation - partition and high-level format your hard
drive automatically. Point and click to create customized partitions.
Automatically copy files and applications to your new drive and remap
drive letters.
Disk Manager is available for download for $59.95 and a demo is
downloadable at their site.
Their main competitor appears to be EZ-Drive originally by StorageSoft
and licensed to OEM drive manufacturers such as Maxtor's MaxBlast.
Recently purchased by Phoenix Technologies, I could find no
purchasable or downloadable copy at their site.
http://www.phoenix.com/en/home/
They note:
Desktop Hard Drive Utilities
As a result of Phoenix Technologies recent acquisition of StorageSoft,
Phoenix is now developing drive pre-configuration and diagnostic
utilities for the setup, installation, and migration of hard drives.
Phoenix Technologies is partnered with leading drive manufacturing
OEMS such as Maxtor, Western Digital, Compaq, and Toshiba; and
continues to ship EZ-Drive and DriveGuide with more than 50,000 hard
drives annually. Phoenix is recognized by OEMs worldwide for its
expertise and excellence in developing and delivering software
solutions to support the rapid, cutting-edge advancements in hard
drive technology.
However, Disk Manager's Competitive analysis at
http://www.ontrack.com/diskmanager/comparison.asp show their product
to be superior in features and function.
I trust this will lead you to a quicker and easier method of getting
your new drives up and running.
Search strategy: hard drive formatting utility
Best regards,
-=clouseau=- |
Request for Answer Clarification by
pjblevin-ga
on
15 Dec 2002 08:27 PST
Clouseau: I went out and bought "Disk Manager", as you advised.
However, after receiving it/looking it over, etc.----I found that it's
useful ONLY for ADDING an additional hard-drive to a PC. But, what I
need is a utility to make it easier to FORMAT & REINSTALL windows. So
this software I bought isn't of any use to me at this time. Maybe
someday it will be. Maybe not. I'm not complaining about the
situation, as there have been many times in this business when I've
bought stuff I ultimately couldn't use. What YOU could do to set the
matter straight is to research & find out if there is software
available to simplify the reinstallation of windows; and if you find
it, to let me know. My e-mail is pjblevin@ comcast.net.
Jerry Blevin
|
Clarification of Answer by
clouseau-ga
on
15 Dec 2002 09:39 PST
Hello again Jerry,
First, I must mention that Google Answers prohibits researchers from
having personal contact with our customers. All communication is done
through this forum. Posting your email address could also have the
non-desirable effect of increasing your Spam email, as well, as many
data mining programs look to Newsgroups and Forums such as this to
find fresh email addresses.
That being said, I am a bit confused by you latest RFC comment. I see
no reason that a drive that is already installed in a machine can not
be treated as a new drive and formatted and partitioned quite easily
with this program. As a matter of fact, one the greatest features
available here is the ability to "clone" a drive very quickly and
easily. If you find that you are doing reformatting and installation
of an OS that is identical many times over, then keeping a Master
drive that is exactly as you want it and cloning to a fresh drive when
needed is a very quick and effective solution. It will even be sure
that things that are often overlooked, such as cluster size, are
properly taken care of. This is a common oversight and causes programs
such as Scan Disk and Speed Disk to fail.
If you choose not clone a fresh drive (or a used drive to be cloned to
new spec), the program should be able to format, partition and setup
the existing drive just as you would like it without the inconvenience
of command line switches and DOS based programs.
Perhaps the fact that they speak about installing new drives is
confusing. I see no reason to treat an existing drive that I wish to
reformat and reinstall software to any differently than a new drive
other than the fact it is already connected to the machine.
Please look at the program a little more closely and do look into the
drive cloning features. I think you may find that it really does
everything you desire and perhaps even more.
Best regards,
-=clouseau=-
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
pjblevin-ga
on
16 Dec 2002 06:51 PST
Clouseau: OK, next time I have to reformat somebody's harddrive, I'll
give Disk Manager a try. I put the CD into my own machine to check it
out. Since I wasn't interested in reformatting my own machine, I
didn't probe too deeply.
Jerry
|
Clarification of Answer by
clouseau-ga
on
16 Dec 2002 10:22 PST
Do let me know, Jerry.
I really believe it will do all you require and more. I will look
further if you find that not to be the case.
Regards,
-=clouseau=-
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
pjblevin-ga
on
16 Dec 2002 11:54 PST
Clouseau: Yeah, I'll let you know----I just don't know when. You've
got me curious about this situation.
Jerry
|
Clarification of Answer by
clouseau-ga
on
02 Jan 2003 14:05 PST
Hello again Jerry,
Happy New Year!
You may and may not know that whenever an asker posts a Request for
Clarification, the researcher is both notified and their account shows
that clarification is need for that question. This does not "clear"
until the researcher posts another clarification. So, I am making this
post partially to tidy up and partially to let you know that once you
have had a chance to try this software more thoroughly, I will be here
to help if needed.
No need to reply until you actually wish me to reply again.
Regards,
-=clouseau=-
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
pjblevin-ga
on
17 Jan 2003 10:37 PST
Clouseau: I finally got a chance to test out that CD for formatting.
When I reached the point where it was gonna format, it said something
to the effect that it didn't format used drives, just new ones. So I
went ahead & reformatted the usual way. So I'm still searching for
some easier and more direct way to do this reformatting. If you hear
of anything, let me know.
Jerry
|
Clarification of Answer by
clouseau-ga
on
17 Jan 2003 10:59 PST
Hi Jerry,
I'm sorry that Disk Manager does not seem to perform the way you
desire. I have not used this program personally, but trusted the
review and made the assumption that it worked as described and as
similar products work.
At this point I would suggest trying MaxBlast. Although it says it is
for Maxtor drives only, I have used it successfully with other brands
in the past and I do not recall ever receiving a message relating to
new rather than used drives.
You can download this here:
http://www.maxtor.co.jp/maxblast/
The page does say you must have one Maxtor drive in the system and
that requirement may have changed since I last used the program.
Could you see if this works and if not, I will look further for you.
Best regards,
-=clouseau=-
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
pjblevin-ga
on
21 Feb 2003 07:02 PST
Clouseau: I think I said that if I ever got any new info on
hard-drive formatting using ‘Disc Manager’, or some other utility, I’d
let you know…….well, here it is. I called Ontrack (maker of Disc
Manager), to find out if they had a product that would do what I
wanted. They put me through to a tech guy named Dave, who spent a
fair amount of time giving me what amounts to a primer course in the
use of Disc Manager 4.0. Turns out that it will do exactly what I
wanted to do…..format any hard-drive…..but not directly from the CD.
The procedure involves first installing the Disc Manager program on
the machine in question---making a diskette from the Disc Manager
program (similar to making an emergency boot disc)—and then booting
from the diskette, much like the Windows utility. I did this on my
machine while on the phone with Dave, and stepped right over to the
edge, where the very next command would have started the formatting.
I aborted at this point. The reason I didn’t format my own 2000Pro
machine was A) it didn’t need it, and B) it’s such a chore. So, this
Disc Manager is gonna work fine for me, and you can put that 5th star
in there for me.
Jerry
|
Clarification of Answer by
clouseau-ga
on
21 Feb 2003 08:16 PST
Hi Jerry,
Great news and thanks so much for letting me know. I'm pleased it is
what you wanted and needed.
Regards,
-=clouseau=-
|
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