LaCie 2big Thunderbolt 2 User Manual
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FORMATTING
ABOUT FILE SYSTEM FORMATS
Mac Users
You can customize the storage device by reformatting and/or partitioning it with separate file system formats.
For optimal performance in Mac OS environments, format and partition the storage device 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.
FAT32: FAT32 is an older format with a maximum single file size limited to 4GB. Since performance is far from
optimal, use FAT32 only if you are going to share your LaCie storage device between Mac and Windows
computers.
See the table below for a comparison between HFS+ and FAT32.
Mac File System Formats
Use HFS+ if:
…you will be using the storage device on Macs only. Performance is far superior when compared to FAT32.
HFS+ is NOT compatible with Windows.
Use FAT32 if:
…you will be using your storage device with both Windows and Mac computers.
