LaCie LaCie SAFE Hard Drive, User Manual, page, Helpful Information, n Mac Users, Use NTFS if

LaCie SAFE Hard Drive	Helpful Information
User Manual	page 26

FAT 32 to NTFS, there is no going back. You can convert from FAT 32 to NTFS, but not the other way around.

Use NTFS if:

•You want to optimize drive performance under Windows 2000 or XP.

•You want to encrypt files, assign permissions to files, or want to audit files for access.

•You will be formatting partitions larger than 32GB.

•You need to store individual files that are larger than 4GB.

•You need a filing system that can be mirrored or structured like a RAID 5 configuration.

Important Info: If you will be shar- ing the hard drive between Mac and Win- dows operating environments, you will want to leave the drive formatted in FAT 32.

nMac Users

Mac OS 10.x Users: You have the option of for- matting the drive in one of four formats: Mac OS Standard (HFS), Mac OS Extended (HFS+), MS- DOS File System and UNIX File System (UFS).

HFS - Mac OS Standard

Mac OS Standard refers to the file system used by Mac OS 8.0 and earlier.This is no longer a mod- ern file system specification, and Mac OS Extend- ed is more efficient. Only use this file system if you are creating a volume smaller than 32MB, using a Mac with a 680X0 processor, or you are creating a file structure that will be need to be used by Macs using Mac OS 8.0 or earlier.

HFS+ - Mac OS Extended

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. Building off of HFS, they increased the number of blocks from 65,536 to 4.29 billion. With HFS+, you are no lon- ger limited by block size.

MS-DOS File System

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 hard 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 ap- plications 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.