LaCie Mobile Drive User’s Guide 04/17/2003 v.2
9
3.2.2 Mac Users
The Mobile Drive is shipped formatted for the PC and will operate on the Mac in this
format. If you do not plan on moving the drive from Mac to PC, you may choose to
erase the drive for the Macintosh file system.
Mac OS 10.x
Install the appropriate driver for your version of OS X. The drivers are located on the
same CD-ROM as the manual.
Once the drivers are installed connect the USB cable
from your hard drive to an available USB port on your computer, and the hard drive
will automatically mount to your desktop. You can then use the formatting and
partitioning capabilities in the
Apple Disk Utility
to configure your hard drive. Please
refer to section
4.2.1 Formatting and Partitioning Using Mac OS 10.x
for more
information.
Mac OS 9.x
To use your new LaCie Mobile Drive, first install the necessary driver software. The
drivers are located on the same CD-ROM as the manual.
Click on the driver installer
icon and follow the prompts to install the drivers.
Once the drivers are installed, follow these steps to use your drive:
1) Connect the USB cable from your LaCie Mobile Drive to an available USB port on
your computer.
2) The drive should then automatically mount onto the desktop. An icon with the
name “LaCie Mobile Drive” (or similar) should be visible.
3) Once the drive is visible on the desktop, you can use it in the same way you use
your computer’s internal hard drive.
3.3 Installing Multiple USB Peripherals
Technically, you can connect up to 127 individual USB peripherals at one time.
However, you probably will not use more than 6 to 8 peripherals on your USB
system. Most computers only have two USB ports, so you would need a hub to
connect more than two peripheral drives. The hub regenerates the signals, generally
providing between 4 to 7 connections. To add even more drives, connect a new hub
to a connector of the original hub, creating a new series of peripherals, etc. But the
hub slows down the transfer rate by lengthening the path of the signal. To optimize
performance, connect your drive directly to one of the built-in ports in your computer.
3.4 Disconnecting Your LaCie Mobile Drive
USB external devices feature “plug & play” connection. This means that your drive
can be connected and disconnected while the computer is running. To prevent
failures, it is important you follow these steps when disconnecting your USB device.
3.4.1 Mac Users
You must unmount the drive before disconnecting it or powering it down. Drag the
Hard Drive icon to the trash. The drive can now be disconnected.