User manual LACIE GRAND HARD DISK

[. . . ] LaCie grand Hard Disk User Manual Table of Contents page 1 Table of Contents 1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Box Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Minimum System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [. . . ] To prevent failures, however, it is important to follow these steps when disconnecting your hard drive. 2. 4. 1. Windows Users Fig. 06 - Windows Users From the System Tray (located in the lower right-hand side of your screen), click the Eject icon (a small green arrow over a hardware image) (Fig. A message will appear, listing the devices the Eject icon controls (it should say, "Safely remove. . . "). This message will appear: "Safe to Remove Hardware" (or similar). It is now safe to disconnect the device. 2. 4. 2. Mac Users Fig. Your drive may be represented by an icon that looks like the drive itself. ) When the icon disappears from the desktop, the drive can be disconnected. LaCie grand Hard Disk User Manual Formatting & Partitioning page 13 3. Optional Formatting & Partitioning The first time you use your LaCie hard drive, the LaCie Setup Assistant formats your drive according to your needs. If your needs change, you can reformat your LaCie hard drive to optimize it for use with Windows or Mac, or for cross-platform use. For example, if you used LaCie Setup Assistant to format your drive to work with your Mac, but now you want to share your hard disk with Windows users, you can reformat it to FAT 32 (MS-DOS) for this purpose. IMPORTANT INFO: Please copy the User Manual and utilities to your computer before reformatting. If you have other data that you want to protect or continue to use, copy this information to your computer before reformatting. File System Formats There are three different file system format categories: NTFS, FAT 32 (MS-DOS), and Mac OS Extended (HFS+). See the table, below, for more information. Use NTFS if. . . . . . you will be using the drive only with Windows 7, Windows XP or Windows Vista (performance will generally be greater when compared to FAT 32). This file system is compatible in read only mode with Mac OS 10. 3 and higher. Use HFS+ if. . . What is Formatting? When a disk is formatted, the following things occur: 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. . . . you will be using the drive on Macs only; performance will generally be greater when compared to FAT 32. This file system is NOT compatible with Windows OS. Use FAT 32 (MS-DOS) if. . . . . . you will be using your drive with both Windows and Mac 10. 3 or sharing the drive between Windows 7 and Windows XP or Windows Vista. Maximum single file size is 4GB. What is Partitioning? You can also divide the hard disk into sections, called partitions. A partition is a section of the hard disk's storage capacity that is created to contain files and data. For instance, you could create three partitions on your drive: one partition for your office documents, one as a backup and one for your multimedia files. Or, if you will be sharing the drive with another person in your household or office, you can create a partition for each person who uses the drive. Partitioning is optional. LaCie grand Hard Disk User Manual Formatting & Partitioning page 14 3. 1. Windows Users The process of formatting a drive on a computer running Windows 7, Windows XP or Windows Vista consists of two steps: (1) installing a signature on the drive, and (2) formatting the drive. [. . . ] A Hi-Speed USB 2. 0 device can only operate at Hi-Speed USB 2. 0 performance levels when it is connected directly to a Hi-Speed USB 2. 0 port or hub. Otherwise, the Hi-Speed USB 2. 0 device will operate at the slower USB 1. 1 transfer rates. Check to see that the Hi-Speed USB 2. 0 drivers for both your host bus adapter and device have been installed correctly. The drive is not running noticeably faster when connected via Hi-Speed USB 2. 0. Are there other USB devices connected to the same port or hub? [. . . ]