LaCie Desktop User Manual - 3. Optional Formatting and
LaCie Desktop Hard Disk
Formatting and Partitioning
User Manual
page 12
3. Optional Formatting and
Partitioning
Your LaCie Desktop Hard Disk is preformatted in FAT-32, optimized
for us with Mac OS X and Windows. If you plan to use your LaCie
Desktop Hard Disk with both Mac and Windows computers, you do
not need to reformat. If you plan to use the drive with one operating
system only, you may notice increased performance by reformatting
for your operating system. See below.
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 in-
ternal address tables that it later uses to locate information. Your
LaCie Desktop Hard Disk is preformatted in FAT 32 (MS-DOS) for-
mat. To reformat your drive, follow the instructions in this section.
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 cre-
ated to contain files and data. For instance, you could create three
partitions on your drive: one partition for your office documents,
one as a backup and one for your multimedia files. Or, if you will
be sharing the drive with another person in your household or of-
fice, you can create a partition for each person who uses the drive.
Partitioning is optional.
3.1. File System Formats
There are three different file system format categories: NTFS, FAT 32
(MS-DOS), and Mac OS Extended (HFS+). See the table, right, for
more information.
IMPORTANT INFO:
Please copy the User Manual and utilities
to your computer before reformatting. Reformatting will erase ev-
erything from the Hard Disk. If you have other data that you want to
protect or continue to use, copy this information to your computer
before reformatting.
Use NTFS if...
...you will be using the drive only with Windows 2000,
Windows XP or Windows Vista (performance 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 or Windows Vista. Maximum single file
size is 4GB.