Oponal Formang and Paroning
LaCie Rugged RAID Pro 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 file 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:
