. . . cont'd March 12, 2006 Show Notes Cracking Your Hard Drive Somebody urgently wanted to know how to get at the firmware in his/her hard drive. Hmmm. Howcum? Always backup all of the data on a hard drive before performing firmware updates. If you just want to update a specific drive, try the following: Step 1: Visit your hard drive manufacturer's web site and browse to the Support area. Step 2: Download all of the firmware updaters and technical information freely available on the web site. Step 3: Perform the updates, following the manufacturer's instructions carefully. If you're looking for technical information on hard drives, try here. On the same site, there's also a White Paper link which will be of interest. Anybody looking for proprietary information online about various hard drives is going to have a hard time finding it. The information is proprietary to various manufacturers and they all guard the information quite closely.

What's the Best Windows File Manager in the Whole Wide World?

Often asked, rarely answered. One reader harkened back to the Atari ST days and I can sympathize. Actually, I think the best file selector/utility combination ever (for TOS/GEM users) was the combination of Universal Item Selector III and FastPath. Great stuff. Back to the present, here's a list of the file selectors and general file managers we've reviewed recently:
 
Access Folders (file path/folder tracker with editable presets)
 
DiscJockey (comprehensive file manager and viewer)
 
Explorer Plus (a direct competitor to Total Commander and PowerDesk Pro)
 
PentaSuite 8 (everything but the kitchen sink)
 
xplorer2 Professional (unique and useful feature set and an Editor's pick)
 
Christian Ghisler's Total Commander is still the best of the pure file managers. Unless I misunderstand your needs, Total Commander has the folder/directory synch feature you're looking for. Can't figure out why we haven't yet reviewed Total Commander, but the review is coming soon.
 
Reviewer Mark Goldstein tackled the xplorer2 Professional review and is still in love with the product.
 
PowerDesk 6 (originally from Mijenix which sold it to OnTrack which sold it to VCOM), has always been too unstable for reliable, daily heavy-duty use. Its feature set is absolutely terrific, but it's quite possible that the product is suffering from memory leaks. VCOM needs to put a lot of effort into this one, but that may not happen because there's just not enough revenue (real and potential) from this kind of product to justify all of the work.
 
Servant Salamander is a perfectly good product which is not too well known likely because it has a goofy name which really doesn't help people identify its use or purpose. I know a couple of people who use it regularly and they tell me the product works well. We've got a review of SS scheduled for publication in about three weeks.

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