I don't normally get too excited about computer software, since most everything I've used has had problems. However, as a result of my recent difficulties with setting up a 'bitsa', (see 'A long winded problem'), I purchased a copy of On Track's Disk Manager. It was enthused over in Scott Mueller's PC 'bible' in 1994, so it's been around a while.
Verdict? Absolutely cracking !
I have never seen anything quite as well thought out. Partitioning AND formatting a 3.2 Gb IDE took approx 20 SECONDS
The manual is part of the program and is excellent. The options include the ability to rearrange your Master/Slave set-ups in the bios without jumper changes !!
. Best of all, it provides for low level formatting for all normally used IDE drives , so it can by-pass the Bios if that is causing problems. Took about 40 minutes for the download on a 42K connection. ......... exits, gurgling happily