" FWB Ships Partition Toolkit Version 1.0
-Easy-to-use disk utility resizes drive partitions on the fly-
FWB Software today announced the immediate availability of Partition Toolkit. Partition Toolkit features a streamlined user interface for creating, deleting, and easily modifying drive partitions.

With Partition Toolkit, users can resize Macintosh formatted volumes to make them smaller, and then use the new free space to create an extra volume in the format of their choice. The four formats supported by Partition Toolkit for volume creations include HFS (Mac OS Standard File System), HFS+ (Mac OS Extended File System), MS-DOS, and LinuxPPC.

"Normally a drive volume can not be easily resized without destroying the data contained within. Adding extra partitions or volumes to a drive usually involves the painful procedure of backing up the data, reformatting, partitioning the drive, and restoring the data," said Marko Kostyrko, FWB's Director of Product Development. "FWB Partition Toolkit was created to automate the procedure of resizing and creating new volumes on the fly without the need to move your data to a temporary storage."

"There are many benefits of partitioning a drive into more than one volume. For example, a machine running OS 9 and OS X can have the operating systems separated from each other and data becomes easier to maintain and manage. In addition, a volume can be secured with other disk utilities as a read-only or a password protected partition. Partition Toolkit is a must for anyone who has better things to do than shuffling data back and forth in order to create additional volumes." concluded Marko Kostyrko.

Pricing, Availability and System Requirements
Partition Toolkit 1.0 is now available for the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $24.95.
Partition Toolkit requires: Mac OS 8.6 or Mac OS 9.X, Power Macintosh CPU with G3 or G4 processor, 16 MB of available RAM, and SCSI or IDE hard disk. "

FWB's product page for Partition Toolkit is here.

" Yes, there is joy in Mudville tonight! I had bought a Ricoh MP-5125A DVD+RW+R drive this summer to burn my video projects with. It works great, except that the DVD+RW+R discs would not work when I placed them in my Pismo Powerbook's drive (a Matshita SR-8174.) However, after looking around on http://www.dvdplusrw.org/ I found a Compatibility Bitsettings page (http://www.dvdplusrw.org/resources/bitsettings.html) that had a link to a Window's updater for my drive and a OpenBSD updater (which I never could get to work.) I finally took my drive out of it's firewire case and installed it in a PC to update. After Using the Bitsetting program and updating it's firmware to 1.38, I popped it back in to the firewire case and tried burning a DVD Video project on a DVD+R in Toast 5.2. YES! My Pismo sees a plays the disc just fine now! Suddenly my $400 drive actually seems worth the money I paid for it!
Matthew R. "

I seem to remember a recent drive database report on this sort of tweak, but asked Matthew to also post a report there for future reference.

"Hi Mike,
I have been waiting for Microtech to release the 10.2 drivers for the USB SnapShot smartmedia reader for over a month now but I have downloaded the driver for the USB CameraMate and it works for the SnapShot too, even though there is no mention about that in their download site. I just thought of letting you know so that you can pass the info to other readers waiting for the update like me:
www.dazzle.com/support/update-MacOSX-ZiOSM-RabbitSM.htm
Thanks!
paris"

I also asked that he post a drive database report under Smartmedia readers.

• Sonnet G4 1GHz in (Quicksilver G4/8733) G4/AGP (rated 9)
• Apple Dual G4 500 OC report

(Warning - Overclocking may not be reliable and could lead to hardware failure or corrupted data.) You can find the full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database for entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy. (Searchable by mac model/upgrade brand). For detailed reviews with performance tests and install tips, see the CPU Upgrades page.)

Combo DVD+CDR Drive Reports:
• Firewire (IDE drive in FW case) LG GCC-4320B (32x10x40x+16x DVD ROM) used w/iBook (OS X) (using modified support plugin from FAQ)
• IDE Teac DW-224E (24x10x24x + 8x DVD-ROM) in iBook 2001 (OS X)
  (see FAQ's CDROM/CDR section for modified itunes support file)
  
  DVD-R DVD Recorder Drive Reports:
• IDE Pioneer DVR-A05 (105) in Beige G3 (OS 9.2)
  (no itunes support, but iDVD and Discburner worked)
• USB (IDE drive in USB case) Pioneer DVR-A04 (104) used w/G4 AGP (OS X)
  
  Expansion Bay CDRW Drive Reports:
• Sony CRX700E (8X4X32) in PowerBook G3 2000 (OS 9.2)
  
  IDE CDRW Drive Reports:
• Acer (Aopen?) CRW 3248 (32x12x48x) in B&W G3 (OS X)
  (no itunes/discburner support)
• Lite-On LTR-40125S (40x12x48x) in B&W G3 (OS 9.2)
  (another report firmware update helped freeze issue at boot)
• Lite-On LTR-48246S (48x24x48) in G4/AGP (OS X)
• Samsung SW-248B (48x16x48) in B&W G3 (OS X)
• Sony CRX 195E1 (40x12x48x) in Beige G3 (OS X)
• Yamaha CRW-F1 (44x24x44) in Beige G3 (OS 9.2)
  (no itunes/db support)
  (FYI - Illustrated CD drive install guide here covers G4 towers up to the Digital Audio Model, Beige G3 MT, B&W G3 and 8600/9600 Macs.)
  
  Firewire CDRW Drive Reports:
• Creative Labs "Blaster" 24x10x40x used w/G4 AGP (OS X)
  (listed under 'other' brands - not recognized even w/Toast)
  
  IDE Hard Drive Reports:
• Maxtor 60GB in iMac (OS 9.1)
• Maxtor D740X 40GB in B&W G3 using IDE PCI card (OS X)
  (Illustrated guide to adding a 2nd HD here in B&W G3 rev2 to G4 QuickSilver models)

You can find full owner reports (latest shown first) by searching the database by drive/brand/interface/mac models (the latest reports are shown first in searches). For guides to installing CD/CDRW/DVD drives or Hard drives in many mac models, see the IDE Articles page. The Firewire articles page also has guides on case kits, installing drives, etc.
If you've added a IDE, SCSI, Firewire or USB hard drive, CDRW, tape drive, etc. make sure you add a report to the database. [If you post an updated entry - make sure you use the same name, etc. as you did before so I can find your past entry. Thanks.]
(Entries today will be added the following newsday. Incomplete entries are deleted. Do not post questions in the database, it's for drive reports not questions on what drive to buy - for that try searching the database for reports from owners of your mac model on the drive type/brand/interface, etc. you're interested in.)

• 1 year ago today
• 2 years ago today
• 3 years ago today