User manual LACIE HARD DISK QUADRA

[. . . ] LaCie hard disk · DESIGN BY NEIL POULTON User Manual Table of Contents page 1 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Minimum System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Box Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Views of the Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [. . . ] (The icon pictured below is a generic USB device icon. Your drive may be represented by an icon that looks like the drive itself. ) 2. When the icon disappears from the desktop, the drive can be disconnected. LaCie hard disk · DESIGN BY NEIL POULTON User Manual Formatting & Partitioning page 14 3. Optional Formatting & Partitioning The first time you use your LaCie hard disk, the LaCie Setup Assistant formats your drive according to your needs. If your needs change, you can reformat your LaCie hard disk to optimize it for use with Windows or Mac, or for cross-platform use. For example, if you used LaCie Setup Assistant to format your drive to work with your Mac, but now you want to share your hard disk with Windows users, you can reformat it to FAT 32 (MS-DOS) for this purpose. To reformat your drive, follow the instructions in this section. IMPORTANT INFO: Please copy the User Manual and utilities to your computer before reformatting. Reformatting will erase everything 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. File System Formats There are three different file system format categories: NTFS, FAT 32 (MS-DOS), and Mac OS Extended (HFS+). See the table, below, for more information. Use NTFS if. . . . . . you will be using the drive only with Windows 7, 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. . . What is Formatting? When a disk is formatted, the following things occur: 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. . . . 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 7 and Windows XP or Windows Vista. Maximum single file size is 4GB. 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 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 office, you can create a partition for each person who uses the drive. Partitioning is optional. LaCie hard disk · DESIGN BY NEIL POULTON User Manual Formatting & Partitioning page 15 3. 1. Windows Users The process of formatting a drive on a computer running Windows 7, Windows XP or Windows Vista consists of two steps: (1) installing a signature on the drive, and (2) formatting the drive. These steps will erase anything that is on the disk. [. . . ] Resolve resource conflicts (IRQ, DMA, or I/O). Verify port multiplier (PM) support in the HBA. LaCie hard disk · DESIGN BY NEIL POULTON User Manual Contacting Customer Support page 23 6. Contacting Customer Support Before You Contact Technical Support Read the User Manual and review the Troubleshooting section. If possible, make the drive the only external device on the CPU, and make sure that all of the cables are correctly and firmly attached. [. . . ]