Thinkpads Forum

My head hurts!! I've just spent hours trying to find some kind of link where I can download a Disk Manager for my Hitachi drive. I know Hitachi no longer offers a download at their site and that's really a bummer as I like to have Disk manager software for all the vendor HDs I use.

Can anyone point me in the right direction before I go completely nuts! I'll take any link to any version Hitachi Disk Manager anyone can offer. Hopefully, I can find an older version that will work. Perhaps someone has kept a shortcut to one of Hitachi's original Disk manager download??

The main reason I want it is because I want to reload my OS, and I just hate to wait for windows as it runs through formatting... it takes forever!

TIA,

makai

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I don't get it. Can't you just install Windows on a smaller partition, which would format faster?

That's what I do. I install Windows and all my programs on my C (primary partition) drive, but all my user files and documents on my D (extended partition) drive. Then I make a disc image of C. That way, if and when I have to nuke Windows, I can restore the disc image to C, leaving all my user files on D unaffected. (In fact, I could put the image file on D.)

Steve

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Batuta,

Thanks for the links. The first two are helpful as they allow low-level formatting. I can use that. The third link is one that I had already visited and as you know Disk Manager is no longer offered for download. It frustrating that vendors sometimes just decide to drop all links to previous versions. Sheesh!

Steve,

What don't you get? I understand fully about partitioning drives. My main reasoning for wanting Disk manager is so I could also get the other utilities normally available with vendor supplied Disk manager software. If you've worked with Disk manager, you would know what I'm talking about. Formatting is just one of the things the software would allow me to do faster. Partitioning, low-level formatting are others. Yah, I've been building systems for a long time, and I've gotten used to having things a certain way. Speed is the name of the game when building/reloading machines!

Thanks guys,
makai

You guys seem to have a pretty good handle on the whole HDD upgrade ordeal.
I'm someone who understands the issues and wants to learn how to get to the next level of doing things "right" Please bear with me, some basic assumptions you might have are possibly things i dont know yet but I very much want to learn.
I have an A31p and I've purchased a new 7k60 and will be moving it all over and then want to clean off the old 30gig and use as backup video storage.
My current configuration seems to be ok, I've had XP on the machine for 2 years and never done a reinstall or needed it I guess. What should I do with that hidden partition with all the IBM programs on it? What is the "best" way to do this? What programs do you recomend (some of them seem really expensive for doing a one time transfer)
Thanks people for any and all help. I promise to learn this stuff and then pass it on
Jack