User manual LACIE DATA BANK

[. . . ] LaCie Data Bank Hi-Speed USB 2. 0 User's Manual How To Use This Manual 1 How To Use This Manual In the toolbar: Previous Page / Next Page Go to Previous View / Go to Next View Go to Contents Page / Go to Precautions Page On the page: Click on the text within the Contents page to jump to information on that topic. Click on any red text to automatically jump to more information about that topic. Printing: While optimized for onscreen viewing, the pages of this manual are formatted for printing on 8 1/2" x 11" and A4 sized paper, giving you the option to print the entire manual or just a specific page or section. To Exit: From the Menu bar at the top of your screen, select: File > Quit. Icons Used In This Manual Italicized paragraphs feature an icon describing the type of information being given. Important Info: This icon refers to an important step that must be followed. Tech Note: This icon refers to tips to help maximize performance. Caution!This icon indicates a potential hazard, and gives tips on how to avoid them. LaCie Data Bank Hi-Speed USB 2. 0 User's Manual Table of Contents page 2 Table of Contents Foreword Precautions 1. [. . . ] You can convert from FAT 32 to NTFS, but not the other way around. Use NTFS if: · You want to optimize drive performance under Windows 2000 or XP. · You want to encrypt files, assign permissions to files, or want to audit files for access. · You will be formatting partitions larger than 32GB. · You need to store individual files that are larger than 4GB. · You need a filing system that can be mirrored or structured like a RAID 5 configuration. LaCie Data Bank Hi-Speed USB 2. 0 User's Manual 5. 1. 2. Tech Tips page 21 You will be able to format the drive in one of two formats, using Silverlining Pro (for specific instructions, please refer to the Silverlining User's Manual, in the Silverlining folder): HFS (Mac OS Standard) or HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). Important Info: If you will be sharing the hard drive between Macs and Windows operating environments, you will want to leave the drive formatted in FAT 32. Mac OS 10. x Users: You have the option of formatting the drive in one of four formats: Mac OS Standard (HFS), Mac OS Extended (HFS+), MSDOS File System and UNIX File System (UFS). HFS - Mac OS Standard Mac OS Standard refers to the file system used by Mac OS 8. 0 and earlier. This is no longer a modern file sytem specification, and Mac OS Extended is more efficient. Only use this file system if you are creating a volume smaller than 32MB, using a Mac with a 680X0 processor, or you are creating a file structure that will be need to be used by Macs using Mac OS 8. 0 or earlier. HFS+ - Mac OS Extended Mac OS Extended refers to the file system used by Mac OS 8. 1 and later. HFS+ represents an optimization of the older HFS file system by using hard disk space more efficiently. Building off of HFS, they increased the number of blocks from 65, 536 to 4. 29 billion. With HFS+, you are no longer limited by block size. MS-DOS File System This is the Microsoft file system, more typically known as FAT 32. This is the file system to use if you are going to be using your LaCie hard drive between Macs and Windows operating systems. UNIX File System This is the file system based on UNIX, and is preferrable for users developing UNIX-based applications within Mac OS 10. x. Unless you have a specific reason to use the UNIX File System, you should instead format your drive using Mac OS Extended (HFS+), because it provides Mac users with a more familiar operating experience. LaCie Data Bank Hi-Speed USB 2. 0 User's Manual 5. Available Storage Capacity A gigabyte (GB) means 1, 000, 000, 000 bytes. In order to utilize a hard disk drive, it has to be formatted first. Formatting a disk consists of the following: the operating 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. [. . . ] This process of dividing up the hard drive is called partitioning. A partition is just one section of the hard drive that will contain either special data put there by Silverlining or other files and data. Peripheral ­ A generic term applied to printers, scanners, mice, keyboards, serial ports, graphics cords, disk drives and other computer subsystems. This type of peripheral often relies on its own control software, known as a peripheral driver. [. . . ]