Installation guide

10 11
Optimizing Windows Caching Algorithm
By default, Windows XP optimizes caching for performance on
external drives. Windows Vista and 7 optimize caching for quick
removal. As a result, Windows XP appears to have faster
access to external disks but at a greater risk of data corruption
and loss. To change Windows'
caching algorithm, open the
disk management console (as
described on page 8) on your
system drive. A list of the
attached drives and their
respective volumes will appear.
Right-click on the Fantom
external disk in the disk list and
select properties. Select the
Policies Tab near the top left of
the window, and click your
desired optimization level.
press OK when finished, and
you may close the disk
management applet.
Optimizing for performance can greatly enhance the throughput
of your disk but is much more vulnerable to data loss! Make
sure to have appropriate backup strategies before enabling
this feature!
Formatting the drive in
Windows Hosts
1. Open the disk management console. A list of the attached drives
and their respective volumes will appear. Select the Fantom Disk.
The Disk Management Console can be accessed by right-clicking on
the "My Computer" icon (
) and selecting "Manage" from
the drop down menu. Disk Management is found under "Storage" in
the resultant window. For an illustrated guide, please see
http://www.fantomdrives.com/helpdesk/faq
2a. Right-click on the drive letter and select Format in the pop-up
menu. The Format dialog box will appear. If the hard disk is not
signed for use, the New Partition option will be unavailable. In
this case a signature can be written on the hard drive by right
clicking on the disk description window and selecting "Initialize
Disk". The following dialog box will prompt you to choose The
partition style for the new volume- select MBR for volumes
smaller then 2TB, or GPT for volumes larger then 2TB or for
volumes that you do not
need to access with
Windows XP or earlier.
2b. If your drive has
no drive letter, find your
disk by verifying the
drive capacity. It should
be close to the stated
capacity of your drive in
gigabytes. If the volume
is unallocated, select
the disk, and right-click
the "unallocated" section of the volume. In the context menu,
left-click "New Simple Volume." The new volume dialog box will
appear. Follow the on screen instructions to complete volume
formatting.
3. In the File System pop-up menu, select NTFS. The default
formatting option is full format. A full format will fully verify the
disk media. A Quick format is quick, but will do less verifying of
the drive than a full format. Click Start. Once the format process
is complete, your external hard drive is ready to use.