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Connect Hard Drive

May 31, 1999
By David Risley

Assuming your hard drive has already been physically installed in the system cases, you must now connect it up to the power supply and motherboard.

Connect it to the power supply. This works just like any other drive. Find a spare 4-wire connector from your power supply and plug it in to the back of the drive. The plug is keyed, so it will only go in the correct way.
Attach the Ribbon cable. Attach one end of the cable to the drive and the other end to IDE Controller 1 on your motherboard. Usually, Pin 1 is labeled on the back of the hard drive, so line up the red edge of the cable with Pin 1. Pin 1 on the motherboard controller is probably not labeled, so you'll have to check your manual.
If you are installing a second hard drive in this system, you must connect the cable to this. Find a third connector on the same ribbon cable and attach this to the second drive. If you must switch which connector goes to which drive, this is fine, since the master/slave relationship is determined by jumpers. If you only have two connectors on your cable, you will need to replace this cable with one boasting three connectors.
Double check your work. Make sure everything is tight.

Previous: « Connect Floppy to Motherboard

Next: Connect CD-ROM »

Skip To Page

	1	Introduction
	2	Purchase/Collect Components
	3	Remove System Case
	4	Prepare Case
	5	Install Floppy Drive
	6	Configure Hard Drive & CD-ROM
	7	Install Hard Drive
	8	Install CD-ROM
	9	Configure the Motherboard
	10	Install the CPU
	11	Install Heat Sink
	12	Install Cache Module
	13	Install Memory
	14	Install Motherboard
	15	Install I/O Port Connectors
	16	Connect the Motherboard to the Case
	17	Connect Floppy to Motherboard
•	18	Connect Hard Drive
	19	Connect CD-ROM
	20	Install Video Card
	21	Post-Assembly
	22	Initial Boot-Up
	23	Configure the BIOS
	24	Test Your System
	25	Install Additional Hardware
	26	Prepare the Hard Drive
	27	Install Drivers and OS

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