Hard Drive

Hard Drive is an investigative biography of Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. Reporters James Wallace and Jim Erickson trace his career from his days as an unkempt thirteen-year-old computer hacker to his position as a billionaire CEO. They describe a man who became the most powerful and most feared figure in the computer industry and arguably the richest in America.

The authors say the book is more than a "revenge of the nerds" story. They present it as a balanced analysis of a business success and of an intensely driven personality, part entrepreneur and part enfant terrible. They credit Gates with singular accomplishments, and they also document his brattiness, arrogance and hostility.

The reporting draws on conversations with nearly everyone who knows something about Gates and Microsoft, including childhood friends, employees and business rivals. Their accounts show both the reach and the limits of his abilities. The book also describes the pressure inside the company, where programmers working eighty-hour weeks were known to let off steam by exploding homemade bombs.