Installing Drives

Once you have configured the jumper settings on your drives, you are ready to install them. We recommend removing both side panels on your computer case to enable easier installation, or even removing the drive cage from the case completely. This can be done by removing the appropriate screws. When installing your drives, take your time. Some of the connections are quite small and require a little patience to handle correctly, don't just jam them in.

Mount the Hard Drive

The drive cage should be located at the front end of your computer case; you should see two different bay widths; the narrower section is for your hard drives and 3.5" floppy drive. Slide the hard drive into the bay with the connectors facing the back, aligning the screw holes with the holes in the bay, then screw it into place. This will be much more difficult if you haven't removed all the side panels as suggested. If you have more than one hard drive, proceed in the same manner as the first. Make sure you don't use the bay reserved for your floppy drive; it's the one that has an opening for a floppy disk at the front of the case. You may want to mount the floppy drive at the same time as the hard drives.

Connect the Hard Drive

Once you have your hard drive(s) mounted, you need to connect it to your power supply and to your IDE connector. The power supply connector has four large pins; find the appropriate connecter from your power supply (there will be several of them) and simply slide it into place. It will only connect the proper way, so don't worry about inserting it wrong, just try it in different orientations until it slides in. Make sure you push the connector in all the way. To connect to the IDE you use one of the ribbon cables provided. One end of the ribbon cable goes to the primary IDE connector on your motherboard; consult the motherboard manual to determine which connection is the primary IDE. When connecting the ribbon cable, you must align the pins correctly by determing which is pin#1. If you look at the ribbon cable connector you should notice that one of the center slots for the pins is filled in corresponding to a missing pin in the connector. Or, pin#1 may be marked on the connector and corresponds to the red line on the ribbon cable. If you are uncertain on the orientation, just look carefully at the connectors and it should become clear which orientation is correct. Most ribbon cables will have two connections for two hard drives; if you have two hard drives connect them both to the same ribbon going to your primary IDE connection on the motherboard. If you only have one hard drive, on of the connectors on the ribbon cable will be free. It shouldn't matter which connection you use for which hard drive as long as the jumper settings are correct; just use the furthest connection for the topmost drive.

Install the CD and DVD drives

These mount in a similar manner to the hard drives; simply slide the drives into the appropriate bays. You might have to remove a panel on the front to allow access to the front of the drive. Screw the drive(s) firmly into place. Attach the ribbon cables in the same way as with the hard drive above except this time you will connect the other end to the secondary IDE connection on your motherboard instead of the primary connection; once again consult your motherboard's manual if you aren't sure how to find it. The red edge of the ribbon cable will correspond to pin 1 on the motherboard and on the drive. The power connector will look exactly the same as the one for your hard drive and should be very straightforward to connect. Finally, you'll need to connect the 3-pin audio cable from your CD or DVD drive to your sound card, or to your motherboard if you are using onboard sound. Consult the appropriate manual if you can't find the connection; it should be called CD-IN.

That's it, your drives should now be correctly installed! You may now proceed to the next step: Configuring your motherboard.