background image

LaCie 4big Quadra 

• D

esign

 

by

 N

eil

 P

oulton

 

Table of Contents

User Manual 

page 1

Table of Contents

1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 5

1.1. Minimum System Requirements ..................................................................................................... 6
1.2. Box Content ................................................................................................................................ 7
1.3. Views of the Drive ........................................................................................................................ 8
1.4. Cables and Connectors .............................................................................................................. 10

2. Setting Up Your LaCie 4big..................................................................................... 12

2.1. Connect the Interface Cable ....................................................................................................... 13
2.2. Turn the 4big On ....................................................................................................................... 14

3. RAID ....................................................................................................................... 15

3.1. About RAID Modes ..................................................................................................................... 15

3.1.1.  RAID 0 ............................................................................................................................ 15
3.1.2.  RAID 10 .......................................................................................................................... 16
3.1.3.  Concatenation ................................................................................................................ 16
3.1.4.  RAID 3 and RAID 3+Spare ............................................................................................... 17
3.1.5.  RAID 5 and RAID 5+Spare ............................................................................................... 18

3.2. Changing the RAID Mode ........................................................................................................... 19
3.3. Removing and Installing Drives .................................................................................................... 20
3.4. Formatting ................................................................................................................................. 21

3.4.1.  File System Formats ......................................................................................................... 21
3.4.2.  Formatting for Windows Users .......................................................................................... 23
3.4.3.  Formatting for Mac Users ................................................................................................. 25

3.5. Partitioning the Disks .................................................................................................................. 26

3.5.1.  Windows Users ................................................................................................................ 26
3.5.2.  Mac Users ...................................................................................................................... 30

4. Troubleshooting ..................................................................................................... 31

4.1. LED Status Indicators .................................................................................................................. 32
4.2. Other Troubleshooting Topics ..................................................................................................... 34
4.3. Installing New Firmware  ............................................................................................................ 34

5. Contacting Customer Support ................................................................................. 35

5.1. LaCie Technical Support Contacts ............................................................................................... 36

6. Warranty Information ............................................................................................. 37

Summary of Contents for 301359U

Page 1: ...D 10 16 3 1 3 Concatenation 16 3 1 4 RAID 3 and RAID 3 Spare 17 3 1 5 RAID 5 and RAID 5 Spare 18 3 2 Changing the RAID Mode 19 3 3 Removing and Installing Drives 20 3 4 Formatting 21 3 4 1 File System Formats 21 3 4 2 Formatting for Windows Users 23 3 4 3 Formatting for Mac Users 25 3 5 Partitioning the Disks 26 3 5 1 Windows Users 26 3 5 2 Mac Users 30 4 Troubleshooting 31 4 1 LED Status Indicato...

Page 2: ...This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions may cause harmful interference to radio communications However there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation If this equip ment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception which can be determined by turning...

Page 3: ...d ity beyond 10 90 non condensing Doing so may damage the LaCie 4big or disfigure its casing Avoid placing your LaCie 4big near a source of heat or exposing it to sunlight even through a window Inversely placing your LaCie 4big in an environment that is too cold may damage the unit Rated cooling for altitudes up to 2000 meters Always unplug the LaCie 4big from the electrical outlet if there is a r...

Page 4: ... highly recommends that you keep TWO copies of your data one copy on your external hard disk for instance and a second copy either on your internal hard disk another external hard disk or some other form of removable storage media LaCie offers a complete line of CD and DVD drives If you would like more information on backup please refer to our website Important Info 1GB 1 000 000 000 bytes 1TB 1 0...

Page 5: ...he ability to provide single error detection and redundant information to recover the original if a disk fails a RAID system is an ideal means to safe guard valu able data while also stream lining performance The LaCie 4big is the ultimate approach to a flexible RAID solu tion with its ability to manage various RAID levels for a wide range of applications Features Huge capacity speed security on d...

Page 6: ...r PCI Express card to be able to connect your LaCie 4big via FireWire 800 interface LaCie offers a wide selection of PCI cards Visit the LaCie website at www lacie com accessories Windows Users Windows 2000 Windows XP or Windows Vista 500MHz Pentium III or higher or equivalent proces sor 512MB RAM or greater Available USB 2 0 FireWire 400 FireWire 800 or eSATA interface port Mac Users Mac OS X 10 ...

Page 7: ...ble 4 eSATA cable 5 External power supply 6 LaCie Utilities CD ROM 7 Quick Install Guide 8 2 in 1 RAID mode change and drive removal tool 9 Important Info Please save your packaging In the event that the drive should need to be repaired or serviced it must be returned in its original packaging 2008 LaCie all rights reserved www lacie com 712490 Storage Utilities Version 1 0 LaCie User Manuals Util...

Page 8: ... 1 3 Front View The blue button on the front of the LaCie 4big serves as a LED drive status indicator and the LaCie Shortcut Button See the LaCie Shortcut Button User Manual on the Shortcut But ton CD ROM for more information See troubleshooting section 4 1 LED Status Indicators for more information ...

Page 9: ...switch 7 Drive tray handle 8 Drive lock 9 Drive status LED 10 CAUTION To avoid overheating the LaCie 4big should be installed in a well ventilated area and in such a way as to main tain sufficient airflow across the controller chips Also ensure that the Ventilation Fan is not obstructed Environmental Requirements Temperature 0 35 C 32 95 F Operation Humidity 20 80 non condensing Storage Humidity 1...

Page 10: ...igh speed serial input output technology for connecting peripheral devices to a computer or to each other and FireWire 800 is the implementa tion of the new IEEE 1394b standard FireWire 800 offers increased bandwidth and extended cabling distance between devices FireWire 800 is ideal for bandwidth intensive applications such as audio video and graphics Included FireWire Cables Your LaCie hard disk...

Page 11: ...SATA connectors do not have the L shaped design of other SATA connectors In addition the guide features are vertically offset and reduced in size to prevent the use of unshielded inter nal cables in external applications Included eSATA Cable Your LaCie drive is shipped with an eSATA cable to ensure max imum data transfer performance when connected to a eSATA port S ATA S ATA eSATA Cable Ends eSATA...

Page 12: ...our LaCie 4big Follow the steps below to power on and configure your LaCie 4big Step 1 2 1 Connect the Interface Cable Step 2 2 2 Turn the 4big On Step 3 3 4 Formatting Format the drives to suit your storage needs For more information about file system formats see section 3 4 1 File System Formats 2 Setting Up Your LaCie 4big ...

Page 13: ...ble USB FireWire or eSA 1 TA into the corresponding port on your host computer Connect the other end of the cable to the matching port 2 on the 4big technical note If two interfaces are connected at the same time the first one connected remains active and the sec ond will not work off on auto USB 2 0 FireWire 400 FireWire 800 eSATA ...

Page 14: ... use a power supply from another LaCie device or another manufacturer Using any other power cable or power supply may cause damage to the device and void your warranty Always remove the AC adapter before transporting your LaCie drive Failure to remove the adapter may result in damage to your drive and will void your warranty Technical note You may use your LaCie drive when in a foreign country tha...

Page 15: ...accessible because parts of the data have been written to all disks A1 B1 C1 D1 A2 B2 C2 D2 A3 B3 C3 D3 A4 B4 C4 D4 RAID 0 Disk 1 Disk 2 Disk 3 Disk 4 RAID Number RAID Mode Capacity Protection Speed 0 RAID 0 100 1 RAID 10 50 2 Concatenation 100 3 RAID 3 75 4 RAID 3 Spare 50 5 RAID 5 75 6 RAID 5 Spare 50 7 N A no RAID changes will take effect if 7 is selected Applications RAID 0 is ideal for users ...

Page 16: ... primary disk in the array until is it full and then to successive disks Concatenation provides no perfor mance advantage or added measure of data safety It is simply a method of combining more than one physical disk into one volume for greater overall capacity Concatenation allows full use of the capacity of all disks in the array and most data can survive a disk failure Only data on the failed d...

Page 17: ...ata can be rebuilt to a replacement drive all data in the array will be lost In RAID 3 Spare one disk in the array is left empty If a drive in the array fails the data from the failed disk is automatically rebuilt to the empty or spare disk Applications RAID 3 provides good data safety for environments where long sequential files are being read such as video files Disk failure does not result in a...

Page 18: ...5 Spare one disk in the array is left empty If a drive in the array fails the data from the failed disk is automatically rebuilt to the empty or spare disk RAID 5 Spare Disk 1 Disk 2 Disk 3 Disk 4 Spare A2 D2 C1 Bp A1 B1 D1 Cp C2 B2 Ap Dp RAID 5 Disk 1 Disk 2 Disk 3 Disk 4 Ap B3 C3 D3 A3 C2 D2 Bp A2 B2 D1 Cp A1 B1 C1 Dp Applications RAID 5 combines data safety with efficient use of disk space Disk...

Page 19: ...esired RAID number appears See Fig 3 2 note 0 RAID 0 1 RAID 10 2 Concatenation 3 RAID 3 4 RAID 3 Spare 5 RAID 5 6 RAID 5 Spare 7 N A Note Although the number 7 appears in the RAID selector no RAID changes will take effect if 7 is selected Validate the mode by pushing and holding the front LED 4 button for 2 seconds Let the drives turn on and then turn off the 4big allow it to 5 shut down and turn ...

Page 20: ...AID 10 3 3 5 or 5 mode you can leave it turned on and continue to step 2 Carefully insert the drive tray into an empty drive bay When 2 the drive tray is most of the way in and you feel resistance press the drive tray handle firmly until you feel the drive snap into place and the drive tray handle is flush with the back of the 4big Use the 2 in 1 tool to lock the drive lock Turn the locks un 3 til...

Page 21: ...ws XP and Windows Vista though volume size is limited to 32GB by the Windows partition utility i e Disk Manager and the individual file size is limited to 4GB NTFS This acronym stands for New Technology Filing System and it is the native file system for Windows NT Windows 2000 Win dows XP and Windows Vista NTFS offers several features that are not available with FAT 32 i e file compression encrypt...

Page 22: ...or optimal perfor mance 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 X 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 sys...

Page 23: ...2TB in size but the disks must be converted to the GPT file system before partitions greater than 2TB can be created Connect the drive to the computer via the interface port 1 Right click 2 My Computer and select Manage From the Computer Management window select 3 Disk Management located below the Storage group See Fig 3 4 2 A screens may differ slightly depending on the sys tem If the Initialize ...

Page 24: ... Click Next Click 14 Finish to begin the formatting process Windows Disk Management will format and partition the 15 disk according to your settings Fig 3 4 2 D and your drive will appear in My Computer ready to use Important Info Please refer to section 3 4 1 File System Formats for a more detailed comparison of the various file system formats Figure 3 4 2 C Figure 3 4 2 D ...

Page 25: ... Volume Scheme area In the 7 Volume Information section enter a name for each volume partition choose the volume format Once you have finalized the volume options click 8 Parti tion Click Partition again when the alert message appears to continue Mac Disk Utility will format and partition the disk according 9 to your settings and your drive will be ready to use Important Info Please refer to secti...

Page 26: ...ig Quadra are formatted HFS To use the drives with Windows operating systems or for cross platform use between Mac and PC the drives must be reformatted For more information see section 3 4 1 File System Formats Windows Users 3 5 1 This example illustrates the Fast storage policy which optimizes the LaCie 4big for performance Right click the 1 My Computer icon on your desk top and select Manage fr...

Page 27: ...unallocated space and se 3 lect New Partition If the New Partition option is not avail able select the disk and initialize it first Fig 3 5 1 C Click 4 Next to start the Partition Wizard Fig 3 5 1 D Select the 5 Primary or Extended option and click Next Fig 3 5 1 E Fig 3 5 1 C Fig 3 5 1 D Fig 3 5 1 E ...

Page 28: ...8 Specify the partition size By default the partition occupies 6 the entire volume Click Next Fig 3 5 1 F Assign a drive letter or mount path and click 7 Next Fig 3 5 1 G Name and format the partition and click 8 Next Fig 3 5 1 H Fig 3 5 1 F Fig 3 5 1 G Fig 3 5 1 H ...

Page 29: ...LaCie 4big Quadra Design by Neil Poulton RAID User Manual page 29 Fig 3 5 1 I Review the settings and click 9 Finish to create the logical partition Fig 3 5 1 I ...

Page 30: ...menu choose the number of partitions you want to divide the drive into 16 maximum You can adjust the size of each partition using the slide bar between the partitions in the Volume Scheme area In the 6 Volume Information section enter a name for each volume partition and choose the volume format Mac OS Extended Mac OS Standard UNIX File System or MS DOS technical note To share a volume with Window...

Page 31: ...ion You can also visit the drivers pages where the most recent software updates will be available If you need further assistance please contact your LaCie reseller or LaCie Technical Support see section 5 Contacting Customer Support for details Manual Updates LaCie is constantly striving to give you the most up to date comprehensive user manuals available on the market It is our goal to provide yo...

Page 32: ... and short red Three disks are blinking blue while one disk is blinking 3 blue 1 red RAID 10 RAID is rebuilding RAID 3 RAID 5 RAID 3 5 Solid red failed disks and solid blue functional disks RAID 10 One drive has failed or was improperly inserted RAID is func tional but the security of the drives has been compromised RAID 3 RAID 5 RAID 3 5 Solid red Solid red failed disks and solid blue functional ...

Page 33: ...ctional Dimmed LED stays on for 30 minutes Dimming red 5s Off All Temperature critical LaCie recommends that following this event you leave the 4big in standby for at least an hour before restart ing to prevent damage to the disks Off Off All The 4big is either turned off or has been in standby mode for more than 30 minutes or system or electronic board failure in this case contact LaCie customer ...

Page 34: ...stem Requirements for more informa tion Make sure the power supply is properly connected see section 2 2 Turn the 4big On that the drive has been turned on by pressing the On Off Auto button the back of the drive and that the outlet the power supply is connected to is also turned on Make sure that the drive has been formatted properly Please see section 3 4 Format ting The 4big is working slowly I...

Page 35: ... in front of your computer and that you have the following information on hand Information Where to Find Information 1 LaCie hard drive serial number Located on a sticker at the back of drive or on the original packaging 3 Macintosh PC model Mac users Click on the Apple icon in the menu bar and select About This Mac Windows users Right click My Computer and select Properties General 4 Operating sy...

Page 36: ... http www lacie com fr contact LaCie Germany Contact us at http www lacie com de contact LaCie Italy Contact us at http www lacie com it contact LaCie Japan Contact us at http www lacie com jp contact LaCie Netherlands Contact us at http www lacie com nl contact LaCie Norway Contact us at http www lacie com no contact LaCie Spain Contact us at http www lacie com es contact LaCie Sweden Contact us ...

Page 37: ...sks have been removed and re placed by any hard disk other than a drive provided by LaCie For drive removal replacement process see section 3 3 Removing and Installing Drives LaCie and its suppliers accept no liability for any loss of data during the use of this device or for any of the problems caused as a result LaCie will not under any circumstances be liable for direct spe cial or consequentia...

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