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4. Setting Up Your LaCie Biggest F800
page 31
LaCie Biggest F800
User’s Manual
4.5. Formatting And Partitioning Your LaCie Biggest F800
Before the LaCie Biggest F800 array can be fully utilized, it needs to be formatted. During this process, the array can also be
customized with partitions.
Formatting a disk consists of the following: the operating system erases all of the bookkeeping information on the disk, tests
the disk to make sure that all of the sectors are reliable, marks bad sectors (i.e., those that are scratched) and creates internal
address tables that it later uses to locate information.
As you format the drive, you will have the opportunity to divide the hard drive into sections, called partitions. A partition is a
section of the hard drive’s storage capacity that is created to contain files and data.
Once formatted, the actual available storage capacity varies, depending on operating environment, and is generally about
10% less than the non-formatted capacity.
File System Formats
•
Mac OS Extended (HFS+)
– for Mac OS 9.x and Mac OS 10.x
•
NTFS
– for Windows 2000 and XP