Optional Formatting and Partitioning

You can use LaCie Setup Assistant to format your LaCie hard drive when it is first connected to a computer (Windows or Mac). LaCie Setup Assistant helps you to quickly format the storage device according to your needs.

Read the information below if you:

• Aborted LaCie Setup Assistant while it was formatting.
• Want to reformat your storage device after LaCie Setup Assistant has successfully completed.
• Own a LaCie storage device that does not feature Setup Assistant (for example, LaCie USB keys or RAID devices).

About file system formats

Before following the instructions to format your hard drive, review the hard drive file formats available on your computer.

Mac

Mac OS Extended (HFS+): compatible with Mac only. Mac OS Extended refers to the file system used by Mac OS X.
exFAT: compatible with Mac and Windows. exFAT is used as an alternative to FAT32 since it does not share the same limitations. It is therefore an excellent cross-platform file system.
FAT32: compatible with Mac and Windows. A FAT32 partition can reach 2TB when formatted on a Mac. The individual file size is limited to 4GB. FAT32 can affect your hard drive’s performance.

Mac file system formats

Use HFS+ if:

…you will be using the storage device on Macs only.

Use exFAT if:

…you will be using your storage device with both Windows and Mac computers.

Use FAT32 if:

…you will be using your storage device with Windows and Mac computers, and at least one of these computers is incompatible with exFAT.

Windows

NTFS: since it is the native file system for Windows, volumes created in NTFS are read and write with computers running Windows. Earlier versions of Mac OS X 10.5 or higher may read and write to the NTFS partitions with the help of third-party drivers. There are two formats for NTFS, MBR and GPT. The maximum volume size for MBR is 2TB while the more recent GPT format does not assign limits to file or partition sizes.
exFAT: compatible with Mac and Windows. exFAT is used as an alternative to FAT32 since it does not share the same limitations. It is therefore an excellent cross-platform file system.
FAT32: compatible with Mac and Windows. A FAT32 partition can reach up to 32GB when formatted with Windows. The individual file size is limited to 4GB. FAT32 can affect your hard drive’s performance.

Windows file system formats

Use NTFS if:

…you will be using the storage device only with Windows computers since performance is optimal when compared to exFAT or FAT32.

Use exFAT if:

…you will be using your storage device with both Windows and Mac computers.

Use FAT32 if:

…you will be using your storage device with Windows and Mac computers, and at least one of these computers is incompatible with exFAT.

Formatting instructions

The steps below can help you format and partition a storage device.

Windows

1. Make sure the storage device is connected to and mounted on the computer.
2. Right click on Computer and choose Manage. From the Manage window select Disk Management.
3. From the list of storage devices in the middle of the Disk Management window, locate your LaCie device.
4. To create a new partition, right click on the volume and select New Simple Volume. Follow the on-screen instructions when the New Simple Volume Wizard appears.

Mac

1. Make sure the storage device is connected to and mounted on the computer.
2. Select Go > Utilities in the Finder menu bar.
3. In the Utilities folder, double-click Disk Utility. 
All connected storage devices, partitions or disk images are displayed in the left column.
4. Select the LaCie drive in the left-hand column.
5. Click the Erase tab.
6. Choose a format from the drop-down window.
7. Enter the volume a name.
8. Click Erase and confirm your selection in the pop-up window.