5. Tech Tips
page 26
LaCie d2 SATA II 3Gbits
User’s Manual
5. Tech Tips
5.1. File System Formats
5.1.1. Mac Users
Mac OS 10.x Users:
The LaCie Hard Drive is pre-formatted as a Mac OS
Extended volume. You may customize the drive by
reformatting and/or partitioning the drive with separate
file system formats. For optimal performance in Mac
OS environments, format and partition the drive as one
large Mac OS Extended volume.
Mac OS Extended (HFS+)
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. With HFS+, you are no longer limited
by block size.
MS-DOS File System (FAT 32)
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.
Important Info
: If you will be sharing the hard drive
between Mac and Windows operating environments, you
will want to follow these guidelines:
Mac OS X prefers that all partitions be the same format,
therefore only the first FAT 32 partition is guaranteed to
mount.
Mac OS 10.1.x -
• Works reliably with FAT 32 partitions less than 32GB
Mac OS 10.2.x -
• Works reliably with FAT 32 partitions less than 128GB
• Does not mount FAT 32 partitions greater than 128GB
Mac OS 10.3.x -
• Mounts any FAT 32 drive of any size
• Mounts NTFS volumes as READ-only
Tech Note:
Mac OS 10.3.x Users
- Mac OS Extended
(Journaled) Under Panther, Apple introduced journaling to
the Mac OS Extended file system, which helps protect the
file systems on Mac OS volumes. When journaling is
enabled, file system transactions are maintained and
recorded continuously in a separate file, called a journal.
In the event of an unplanned shutdown, the OS uses the
journal to restore the file system. Journaling is also
backward compatible, and all volumes with journaling
enabled can be fully used by computers not running Mac
OS 10.3.x. For more information, please visit Apple’s
Web site.
