Please read the following recommendations before creating LA-PRIVATE:

• Passwords. You will be prompted to create a password for the LA-PRIVATE volume. Since short passwords are easy to crack, LaCie recommends a minimum of 12 characters. Stronger passwords also include a combination of letters and numbers. Use both capital and small letters for added security. Please consider writing your password on paper and keeping it in a safe place. Data stored on the LA-PRIVATE volume cannot be recovered if the password is lost or forgotten.
• Time to create LA-PRIVATE. The estimated time to create the LA-PRIVATE volume is one minute per Gigabyte (GB). For example, 1GB = 1 minute, 50GB = 50 minutes, and 500GB = 8 hours.
• FAT 32 size limitation. Due to format limitations, LA-PRIVATE cannot exceed 4GB if the LACIE partition is a FAT 32 volume. To create a LA-PRIVATE volume greater than 4GB, LACIE must be formatted as NTFS (Windows) or HFS+ (Mac).
• Data stored on LACIE. Consider the size of the LA-PRIVATE volume carefully, especially if you have already stored data on the LACIE partition. Creating the LA-PRIVATE volume will not delete media on the LACIE partition as long as there is adequate space. For example, you have copied 20GB of data onto 32GB of storage. When creating LA-PRIVATE, you can only use the storage that remains (i.e. less than 12GB).
• Disable sleep mode on your computer. In most instances, LaCie Private-Public will pause when your computer goes into sleep mode. To avoid delays, LaCie highly recommends that you disable sleep mode on your computer before launching LaCie Private-Public to create LA-PRIVATE.
• Do not shut down your computer while LaCie Private-Public is creating LA-PRIVATE.
• Administration rights. You must have administration rights to your computer to access LA-PRIVATE.

Follow the steps below to create LA-PRIVATE:

1. Connect the LaCie storage device to a compatible interface port on your computer. The LACIE partition will appear in My Computer/Computer (Windows) or on your desktop (Mac).
   
   
2. Click twice on the LACIE icon in My Computer/Computer (Windows) or on the desktop (Mac).
   
   
3. Click twice on the LaCie Private-Public application.
4. Windows: You may receive a prompt asking if you wish to run LaCie Private-Public. Please confirm that you would like to continue.
   
5. The first window will ask you to enter a size for the LA-PRIVATE volume. Mac users: Please note that you can use the pulldown menu to select the LA-PRIVATE capacity in MB (Megabytes) or GB (Gigabytes). As a guide, 1000 MB = 1 GB. Choosing GB will allow for sizes such as 1 GB, 10 GB, 50 GB, etc. It is not possible to enter 1.5 GB, 10.5 GB or 50.5 GB. Instead, use MB for capacity to select 1500 MB, 10500 MB or 50500 MB. LA-PRIVATE cannot exceed 4 GB if LA-PUBLIC is formatted FAT 32.
   

   

   

   
   Windows capacity

   
   

   

   

   
   Mac capacity pulldown
6. Please enter the size of the LA-PRIVATE volume.
   
7. Click Next>.
8. Enter and confirm your password. Selecting the check box for Display password will allow you to see the characters in the password field.
   
   
9. Click Next>.
10. Click Format to create the LA-PRIVATE volume with AES 256 encryption.
    
11. The format may run for a few minutes or many hours. Estimate the time by assuming one minute per one gigabyte. Please do not turn off your computer during the format.
    
12. Once the format is complete, LA-PRIVATE will mount automatically in My Computer/Computer (Windows) or in the Finder (Mac). It is now ready to store your most important data.