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LaCie Little Big Disk
User Manual
Using Your LaCie Little Big Disk
4. Using Your LaCie Drive
Formatting a disk consists of the following: the oper-
ating 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.
As you format the drive, you will have the opportu-
nity to divide the hard drive into sections, called par-
titions. A
partition
is a section of the hard drive’s
storage capacity that is created to contain files and data.
Once formatted, the actual available storage capacity varies, depending on operating environment, and is generally about
10% less than the non-formatted capacity.
File System Formats
There are three different file system formats that are predominately found in Mac and Windows environments:
•Mac OS Extended (HFS+) - for Mac OS 9.x and Mac OS 10.x
•NTFS - for Windows 2000 and XP
•FAT 32 - for Windows Me and legacy operating systems
Mac Users
• If you will be using the drive in a strictly Mac OS environment, leave the drive formatted as one large Mac OS Extended
volume.
• If you want to be able to install multiple Mac operating systems on the LaCie Little Big Disk with Triple Interface, partition
the drive into multiple Mac OS Extended volumes.
Windows Users
• If you will be using this drive between Win Me, 2000 or XP environments, it is recommended that you create two parti-
tions: one that is a 32GB FAT 32 (MS-DOS File System) volume, and the other as a large NTFS volume.
• If you will be using the drive in a strictly Win 2000/XP environment, create one large NTFS volume.
TEChNICAL NOTE:
Windows Users:
This LaCie Hard Drive is formatted for the Mac operating system, and you will
need to re-format the drive in order for it to appear and operate under the Windows operating system. See section
4.1.2.
Formatting and partitioning your LaCie drive
for detailed instructions.
IMpOrTANT INFO:
If you will be using this drive be-
tween Mac and Windows operating environments, you
can create two partitions: one 32GB FAT 32 volume,
and one large Mac OS Extended volume. There are cer-
tain limitations to this configuration, though; to achieve
the best performance and reliability, it is recommended
that you utilize a third-party utility, such as Mediafour’s
MacDrive, which allows Windows computers to read
and write files on a volume formatted for the Mac.
