Formatting the Drive in
Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista
1. Open the disk management console, located at \Windows\
System32\diskmgmt.msc on your system drive. A list of the
attached drives and their respective volumes will appear. Select
the Fantom Drives GreenDrive II Disk.
2. Right-click on a GreenDrive II volume. If it’s not initialized, a red
“No Entry” logo will cover the disk icon. Right click on the disk and
select “Initialize Disk.” Follow the on-screen instructions.
3. Right-click the initialized volume (The area right of the disk
icon.) In the context menu, select “New Partition.” Follow the
on screen instructions. 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
few minutes, but will do less verifying of the Drive than a Full
format. Click Start. Once the format process is complete, your
GreenDrive II is ready to use.
2
3
8
9
Optimizing Windows Caching Algorithm
By default, Windows XP optimizes caching for performance on
external drives. Vista optimizes caching for quick removal. As a
result, Windows XP appears to have faster access to external
disks but at a greater risk of data corruption and loss. To
change Windows' caching algorithm, open the disk management
console located at \Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc on your
system drive. A list of
the attached drives and
their respective volumes
will appear. Right-click
on the Fantom external
disk in the disk list and
select properties. Select
the Policies Tab near the
top left of the window,
and click your desired
optimization level. press
OK when finished, and
you may close the disk
management applet.
Optimizing for performance can greatly enhance the
throughput of your disk but is much more vulnerable to
data loss! Make sure to have appropriate backup strategies
before enabling this feature!
