LaCie Rugged Secure User Manual

Optional Formatting and Partitioning

LaCie Rugged SECURE is delivered formatted in exFAT for compatibility with both Windows and Mac computers. If you use the drive with only one type of computer, you can optimize file copy performance by formatting the drive in the native file system for your operating system—NTFS for Windows or HFS+ for Macs. There are two ways you can optimize performance:

Toolkit Optimize—Format your drive for optimal performance with just a few simple clicks.

Manual formatting—Use Disk Management (Windows) or Disk Utility (Mac) to format your drive in non-native formats.

About file system formats

NTFS—The native files system for Windows. macOS can read NTFS volumes but cannot natively write to them.

Mac OS Extended (HFS+)—The native hard drive file system for macOS. Windows cannot natively read or write to HFS+ (journaled) volumes.

exFAT—Compatible with Mac and Windows. exFAT is not a journaled file system which means it can be more susceptible to data corruption when errors occur or the drive is not disconnected properly from the computer.

FAT32—Compatible with Mac and Windows. However, FAT32 is a legacy file system designed for low capacity hard drives and it is not recommended for modern hard drives or operating systems. A FAT32 partition can reach up to 32GB when formatted on a Windows PC.

How to choose the file system format

Use NTFS if:

…you connect the storage device to Windows computers, and you don’t need to allow a Mac to write to the disk.

Use HFS+ if:

…you connect the storage device to Mac computers, and you don’t need to allow a Windows computer to read or write to the disk.

Use exFAT if:

…you need to allow both Mac and Windows computers to read and write to the disk.

You can use FAT32 if:

…you connect the storage device to older Windows and Mac computers. FAT32 is not recommended for modern operating systems and computers.

Toolkit Optimize

Use Toolkit Optimize to format your drive for optimal performance with your operating system’s native file format— NTFS for Windows or HFS+ for macOS. File transfer rates can be significantly better with the native format.

Formatting erases everything on the storage device. LaCie highly recommends that you back up all data on your storage device before performing the steps below. LaCie is not responsible for any data lost due to formatting, partitioning or using a LaCie storage device.

Connect LaCie Rugged SECURE to your computer.
Open Toolkit.
On the Main Menu, click on the LaCie Rugged SECURE device.
Click on the More menu icon for the volume you want to optimize. There are two options:
OPTIMIZE—Let Toolkit choose the optimal format for your computer system and configure the volume for you with just a few clicks.

FORMAT—Opens the disk management utility for your operating system, which you can use to manually format your drive. Use this option if you want to format the drive in non-native formats.

Click OPTIMIZE.
A notice appears asking you to confirm the format operation. Click FORMAT.

Manual formatting

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

Mac

macOS version 10.11 or later

Open the Finder and go to Applications | Utilities | Disk Utility.
In the sidebar to the left, select your LaCie Rugged SECURE drive.

macOS 10.13 and later: Make sure to select the disk and not just the volume. If you don’t see two entries listed in the sidebar, change the view in disk utility to show both the drive and the volume. The view button is in the upper left side of the Disk Utility window. Change the view to Show All Devices. This feature was introduced in macOS 10.13 and is not available in 10.11 or 10.12.

Select Erase.
A dialog box opens. Enter a name for the drive. This will be the name displayed when the drive mounts
For Format, select OS X Extended (Journaled).
For Scheme, select GUID Partition Map.
Click Erase.
Disk Utility will format the drive. When it’s finished, click Done.

If security for the drive was disabled when you formatted, you will enable security once the format process is complete. During the security setup sequence, you will be asked to enter your secure code (SID). This will be the password you created previously, and not the secure code found on the insert included with your package.

macOS version 10.9 to 10.10

Open the Finder and go to Applications | Utilities | Disk Utility.
In the sidebar to the left, select the LaCie Rugged SECURE drive that shows the capacity.
In the Disk Utility window, select the Partition tab.
Under Partition Layout, select 1 partition.
Enter a name for the drive. This will be the name displayed when the drive mounts.
For Format, select OS X Extended (Journaled).
Click on Options. Select GUID Partition Map, and then click OK.
Click Apply.
A dialog appears advising you that this is a data destructive process and any data currently on the drive will be deleted.
Select Partition to complete the formatting process.

Windows

Make sure the storage device is connected to and mounted on the computer.
Go to Search and then type diskmgmt.msc. In the search results, double click Disk Management.
From the list of storage devices in the middle of the Disk Management window, locate your LaCie device.
The partition must be available to format. If it is currently formatted, right click on the partion and then choose Delete.
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.