Formatting Your Disk
Module
The portable disk comes preformatted at the factory with the FAT32 file
system, which will mount on most modern operating systems. FAT32
has some limitations, and we recommend you reformat the volume to a
file system format more compatible with your particular computer and
operating system environment.
Formatting a hard drive erases all data contained on it. Please
be sure to create a copy of the files you wish to keep to another
location before reformatting.
Formatting the drive in Mac OS X
1. Launch the “Disk Utility” application located under Applications/
Utilities folder.
2. Highlight your new drive and select the “Partition” tab
3. Select the new partition map type.
4. For each partition in the volume scheme, select the desired file
system format and volume name (optional)
Although it is possible to format a hard drive on Mac OS X
using the DOS file system, we do not recommend this, as
an artificial capacity limit may be imposed on the drive and
performance will be unpredictable.
5. Click the “Options” button. Select “Apple Partition Map” in the
dialog box and click “OK”.
6. Click “Apply.” Your Fantom Drives portable disk is ready to use!
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Formatting the drive in
Windows Hosts
1. Open the disk management console. A list of the attached
drives and their respective volumes will appear. Select the
portable disk Disk.
The Disk Management Console can be found under
\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc on your system drive. For
an illustrated guide, please see
http://www.fantomdrives.com/support/faqs
2. Right-click on the drive letter and select Format in the pop-up
menu. The Format dialog box will appear.
Before a new, un-partitioned disk can be used in Windows, it
must contain a disk signature. If the hard disk is not signed
for use, the New Partition option is unavailable (superimposed
no-entry icon). In this case a
signature can be written on the
hard drive by right clicking on
the disk description window and
selecting "Initialize Disk".
3. Under Capacity, verify the drive capacity. It should be
close to the stated capacity of your drive in gigabytes.
4. In the File System pop-up menu, select NTFS. The default
formatting option is full format. A full format will take about
30-90 minutes. A Quick format will take just a minute, but will
do less verifying of the drive than a full format. Click Start. Once
the format process is complete, your External Hard drive is ready
to use.
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