Formatting For Windows Vista And Windows 7 Users - LaCie 2big USB 3.0 User Manual

LaCie 2big USB 3.0
User Manual
3.4.3. Formatting for Windows Vista and
Windows 7 Users
Master Boot Record or GUID Partition Table?
Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioning has been the hard drive
standard for many years. It supports a maximum of four primary
partitions with a size limit of 2TB per partition. Due to parti-
tion limitations in the face of ever-expanding hard disk drive
sizes, Global Unique Identifier Partition Tables (GPT) has been
established to allow for more partitions with greater capacities.
Further, GPT has many additional advantages that may offer
enhancements in performance.
However, GPT is not compatible with Windows XP 32-bit. While
Windows XP 64-bit supports GPT, it is best to use MBR if you
intend to share your LaCie device with computers running Win-
dows XP 32-bit.
Switching from MBR to GPT or, conversely, from GPT to MBR,
is not difficult. Please copy all important data to a separate disk
before making the change since adjusting the partition table
format is destructive:
Right-click on My Computer and choose Manage. From the
Manage window select Disk Management and find your La-
Cie disk drive. Right-click on the disk number to choose GPT
(Fig. 25) or MBR (Fig. 26).
The steps listed below will help you format and partition your disk
drive using Windows Vista and Windows 7. Please see
matting for Window XP Users
for instructions on formatting using alternative operating systems.
For more information on the optimal file format, go to
System Formats.
1. Right-click on My Computer and choose Manage. From
the Manage window select Disk Management.
2. From the list of drives in the middle of the Disk Manage-
ment window, right-click on your LaCie hard disk drive.
Select New Simple Volume...
•
DESIGN BY NEIL POULTON
3.4.2. For-
or 3.4.4. Formatting for Mac Users
3.4.1. File
(Fig. 24)
continued on the next page>>
Fig. 24
Fig. 25
Fig. 26
Formatting
page 26