7. Technical Specifications
page 36
LaCie silverscreen
User’s Manual
7.4.2. File System Formats – Mac Users
The LaCie silverscreen is pre-formatted as a FAT 32 (MS-DOS) volume. You may customize the drive by reformatting and/or
partitioning the drive with separate file system formats. For optimal performance in Mac OS environments, format and
partition the drive as one large Mac OS Extended volume.
Mac OS Extended (HFS+)
Mac OS Extended refers to the file system used by Mac OS 8.1 and later. 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.
MS-DOS File System (FAT 32)
This is the Microsoft file system, more typically known as FAT 32. This is the file system to use if you are going to be using
your LaCie drive between Macs and Windows operating systems.
UNIX File System
This is the file system based on UNIX, and is preferable for users developing UNIX-based applications within Mac OS 10.x.
Unless you have a specific reason to use the UNIX File System, you should instead format your drive using Mac OS Extended
(HFS+), because it provides Mac users with a more familiar operating experience.
7.5. Available Storage Capacity
A gigabyte (GB) means 1,000,000,000 bytes. In order to utilize a hard disk drive, it has to be formatted first. 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. Once formatted, the actual available storage capacity varies, depending on
operating environment, and is generally about 5 to 10% less than the non-formatted capacity.
