the cd duplicator is a 5 in 1. It has a control panel which from reading the buyer info my take care of the hd partitioning for me. you insert cd into cd rom the control panel acts as the brain and it has 5 cd writable drives. here is some more info on the product.
Completely STANDALONE CD duplicator (no computer or software is required)
Language supports English, Spanish, French, and Japanese
Our CD Duplicators have a counter function that allows you to track the number of disc you've duplicated, and the number of disc left to be duplicated.
Assign/rename/delete name for optional Hard Drive partition.
Able to add password protection.
Able to loading master disc automatically into the Hard Drive and copy directly from the loaded Hard Drive if a hard drive is installed.
Firmware upgradability via duplicator CD-ROM
Disc Info feature: Provides the format of the disc & the disc manufacturer's information.
Selectable CD burning speeds
Automatic CD format recognition
Power boot self diagnostics
Error detection features: test and copy, copy and compare
User friendly 'easy-to-read' LCD display, no training is necessary.
Upgradable for future drive technology
Continuous copying without waiting for cool down
here is a link to a similar control panel
DESCRIPTION
The easy to operate control panel offers many advanced features such as; AutoCopy, Account Management, Hard Drive Partition Naming if hard drive is installed, and much much more.
pardon my use of cpu next time I'll try to "get it right"
My question is, do I need to do anything prior to installing the hd, the description makes it sound like the control panel might partition the HD as needed.
here is a link to a similar control panel
http://www.bsamedia.com/cd398.html