Abstract: A Beryllium disk drive substrate is prepared using a Beryllium metal having a starting modulus of elasticity (stiffness) of about 4.2 times that of Aluminum, in which the beryllium is separated into circular disks and processed by a sequence of lapping, heat-treating under pressure, cooling under pressure and polishing steps which retains the desirable metallurgical characteristics of the starting metal and provides sufficiently high quality surface finish, thermal conductivity and low mass density, to enable improved rotational speeds, acceleration/deceleration rates and information packing density for demanding disk drive applications.