LaCie Biggest Quadra | Technical Information |
User Manual | page 44 |
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■Windows Users
There are basically two file system formats for Win- dows: FAT 32 and NTFS. The following information will hopefully make choosing one or the other a little easier.
FAT 32
FAT is an acronym for File Allocation Table, which dates back to the beginnings of DOS programming. Originally, FAT was only 16 bits, but after the second release of Windows 95 it was upgraded to 32 bits, hence the name FAT 32. In theory, FAT 32 volume sizes can range from less than 1MB all the way to 2TB. It is the native file system of Windows 98 and Windows Me, and is supported by Windows 2000 and XP. When FAT 32 is used with Windows 2000 and XP, though, vol- ume size is limited to 32GB (by the Windows partition utility, i.e. Disk Manager), and the individual file size is limited to 4GB.
NTFS
This acronym stands for New Technology Filing System, and it is the native file system for Windows NT, Windows 2000 and XP. NTFS offers several features that are not available with FAT 32; i.e. file compres- sion, encryption, permissions, and auditing, as well as the ability to mirror drives and RAID 5 capabilities. The minimum supported volume size for NTFS is 10MB with a maximum of 256TB and a 16TB file size limit. Volumes created in NTFS can only be directly accessed (not through shares) by Windows NT, Windows 2000 and XP, without resorting to help from
Use NTFS if...
...you will be using the drive only under Windows 2000 or Windows XP (performance will generally be greater when compared to FAT 32). This file system is compat- ible in read only mode with Mac OS 10.3 and higher.
Use FAT 32 if...
...you will be using your drive between both Windows and Mac OS 9.x or 10.x; or sharing the drive between Windows 2000, XP, and 98 SE. Maximum single file size: 4GB.
Use HFS+ if...
...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.
For more information, please refer to section 4.5. Format- ting and Partitioning Your LaCie Hard Drive.
