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Formatting
Your GForce MegaDisk
The GForce MegaDisk 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 the
drive. If you wish to reformat your Fantom Drives External
Hard drive, be sure to create a copy of the files you wish to
keep before reformatting.
Formatting the drive in Mac OS X
1. Launch the Disk Utility application (Disk Utility is located in
the Utilities folder, inside the Applications folder). The Disk Utility
window will open with a small sub-window at left and a larger
sub-window with a series of tabs at the top.
2. You should see the drive listed in the left sub-window. Click on
the drive to highlight it; if you see two icons for the drive, select
the uppermost (root) instance. Information about the drive will
appear in the Information sub-window.
3. Click on the Erase tab. In the Erase sub-window you will see a
Volume Format pop-up menu and a Name field.
4. In the Volume Format pop-up, select the format type (MacOS
Extended is recommended.)
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 Erase. You should see an alert pop up with the message:
“Erasing a disk will destroy all information on all of the volumes of
the disk…” Click Erase. Once initializing is complete, you should see
the drive listed in the left sub-window of the Disk Utility screen. Quit
Disk Utility. You should now see the drive icon on the Desktop.
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
GForce 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.
5. In Windows XP and Vista, it is possible to optimize the drive
for performance or quick removal. To select your desired mode,
open the device manager (located in \Windows\System32\
devmgmt.msc on your system drive.) Right-click Fantom Disk in
Disk drives, 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.
