LaCie 301200u User Manual

Triple Interface

page 

Your  LaCie  Big  Disk  Extreme+  is  formatted  in 

HFS+. This is the most efficient format for use with your 

Mac. If you would like to share this hard drive with PC 

users, you will have to reformat your LaCie Big Disk 

Extreme+.

What is Formatting?

Formatting a disk consists of the following: the op-

erating system erases all of the bookkeeping informa-

tion 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. 

File System Formats 

There are essentially three different file system for-

mats: NTFS, FAT 32, and Mac OS Extended (HFS+).  

See the following chart for more information.

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Partitioning Your LaCie Big Disk Extreme+

After you’ve formatted the drive, you will have the 

opportunity to divide the hard drive into sections, called 

partitions.  A  partition  is  a  section  of  the  hard  drive’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 documents, one for 

your backup, and one for your multimedia files.v

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 FAT 32 is recommended 

for sharing a hard drive with Windows 2000, Win-

dows XP and Windows Vista and Mac OS users. 

However keep in mind that the FAT 32  format 

will slow down your hard drive and single file size 

is limited to 4 GB.

...you will be using the drive only under Windows 2000 or Win-

dows XP (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.

...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.

For more information, please refer to page 29, 

Formatting And 

Partitioning Your LaCie Hard Drive

.

...you will be using your drive between both Windows and Mac 

10.x; or sharing the drive between Windows  2000, Windows XP, 

and Windows Vista.  Maximum single file size: 4GB.