User manual

LaCie Box • DESIGN BY NEIL POULTON Formatting
User Manual page 13
If your needs change when using the LaCie Box, you can reformat
your SATA 3.5” hard drive to optimize it for use with Windows
or Mac, or for cross-platform use. For example, if you previously
formatted your drive to work with a Mac using HFS+, but now
you want to share your hard disk with Windows users, you can
reformat it to FAT 32 (MS-DOS). To reformat your drive, follow
the instructions in this section.
IMPORTANT INFO: Please copy all critical or important data
from the LaCie Box to your computer’s internal hard drive or an
external hard drive before reformatting. Reformatting will erase
everything from the SATA disk within the LaCie Box. If you have
data that you want to protect or continue to use, copy this infor-
mation before reformatting.
What is Formatting?
When a disk is formatted, the following things occur: the operat-
ing system erases all of the bookkeeping information on the disk,
tests the disk to make sure that all of the sectors are reliable,
marks bad sectors (i.e., those that are scratched), and creates
internal address tables that it later uses to locate information.
What is Partitioning?
You can also divide the hard disk into sections, called partitions.
A partition is a section of the hard disk’s storage capacity that is
created to contain files and data. For instance, you could create
three partitions on your drive: one partition for your office docu-
ments, one as a backup, and one for your multimedia files. Or, if
you will be sharing the drive with another person in your house-
hold or office, you can create a partition for each person who
uses the drive. Partitioning is optional.
File System Formats
There are three different file system format categories: NTFS, FAT
32 (MS-DOS), and Mac OS Extended (HFS+). See the table be-
low for more information.
3. Optional Formatting & Partitioning
Use NTFS if...
...you will be using the drive only with Windows 2000,
Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (perfor-
mance will generally be greater when compared to FAT
32). This file system is compatible in read only mode
with Mac OS 10.3 and higher.
Use HFS+ if...
...you will be using the drive on Macs only; performance
will generally be greater when compared to FAT 32.
This file system is NOT compatible with Windows OS.
Use FAT 32 (MS-DOS) if...
...you will be using your drive with both Windows and
Mac 10.3 or sharing the drive between Windows 2000
and Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. Maxi-
mum single file size is 4GB.