Making the Most of Humongous Hard Drives

Massive hard drives offer lots of storage space, but dividing that space into sections can make using it a lot easier. DriveWorks from V Communications is an integrated suite of software utilities that handles partitioning a hard drive, imaging it, and more, for $70.

DriveWorks runs in DOS, but you can install and launch it through any version of Windows except 2000 and NT; for those or for Linux, you must boot from the included floppy disk. You can use DriveWorks with almost any PC--386 on up--that has 8MB of RAM.

The software has a straightforward Windows-style interface and wizards that walk you through various tasks. Partition Commander, the solid, easy-to-use core utility, lets you create, delete, resize, and move partitions, and convert them between disk formats such as FAT32 and NTFS.

Image Commander can capture images of whole drives or individual partitions and then save those images--including every file--in a single compressed file. Restoring a partition or drive from an image is quick and easy, but you can't restore individual files from an image (you must restore all files). The program also has weak support for using CDs to save and restore images, making this approach cumbersome and inefficient.

My shipping copy of DriveWorks also included apps for copying an entire hard drive to another hard drive; for erasing a drive or partition so it can't be restored; and for automatically backing up files as you create and change them. But switching between operating systems--handy if you choose to run a different OS in some partitions--is more awkward with DriveWorks than with other partitioning software. Still, DriveWorks is powerful enough for most people, and you can't argue with the price.

SUMMARY

DriveWorks PRO: Does most tasks well. CON: Restoring from images on CDs is unduly complicated. VALUE: Price, power right for most. List price: $70; downloadable version $50; Partition Commander, Partition Commander upgrade, or System Commander 2000 upgrade $40 V Communications 408/965-4000 www.v-com.com