FAST PC How To Build A PC - A Comprehensive Guide Matt Totten -
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Hard Drive This is very similar to what we just installed. A lot of the steps are going to be repeated, but there are some small, yet important differences (so pay attention!). First of all, take a look at the picture of the PC case. The 3.5" Drive bays are where you install your hard drive(s). If you plan on installing multiple drives, I suggest spacing them out for better air flow inside the case. You don't want to use the drive bay with exterior access; these bays would be used by a floppy drive, if you had one (which most people don't nowadays). I won't take the time to detail how to install a floppy drive here, instead, here's a link on installing a floppy drive. Now, before you slide the hard drive into the slot, take a look at the back of the drive (see below for a reference).

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So let's take a closer look at the back of your drive. You should see similar labelling on the back of your drive to what is in the picture. Here's what these letters mean:

MA- Master. This means that this device will be the primary device connected on the IDE cable. For this setting to work 100%, you must connect the end of the cable to the device (see picture below on the left).

SL- Slave. This means the device will be the secondary device on the IDE cable, and it will boot after the Master device. You must connect the proper plug into the device for it to work (see picture below on the left).

CS - Cable Select. I recommend not using this setting, as I've frequently encountered problems using this setting. This means that the device will be either a Master or Slave device depending on where it's plugged in on the IDE cable.

 

       

This setting is very important for hard drives, for a number of reasons. Whichever drive you select as your 'Master' drive will be the one that your Operating System boots from. If you don't make sure that the jumpers match up with the plug that the device is connected to, the device won't work at all.

An important note: don't connect the hard drive to the same IDE cable as CD/DVD drive! It's important for hard drives and CD/DVD drives to have their own, separate cables (there are at least 2 IDE connections on the motherboard, so you'll be fine doing this). This is important for data stream integrity and so that a hard drive will never be a 'Slave' device to a CD/DVD drive (which would cause a LOT of problems, to say the least).

While most devices ship with the jumper on 'Cable Select', I suggest changing the jumper to the appropriate plug.

After figuring on where you are going to insert your drives and changing the jumper settings, slide the drive into the drive bay and screw it in.

 

 

 

Before finishing up with the hard drive, we'll need to connect the power supply to it! The red-circled plug is the one we're referencing to.

 

 

  The power plug will connect to the back of the hard drive to the right of the IDE cable. The power connection is keyed, so the plug will only go in one way.       We're now moving on to the last step of building your FAST PC!  

Next: Assemble a Computer: Case Fans

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Assembly Supplies   The Case   Mounting the Motherboard   Installing the Processor   Mounting the CPU Cooler   Installing the RAM   Configuring the Motherboard   Installing the Video Card & PCI Cards   CD & DVD Drives   Hard Drive   Installing the Case Fan   Post-Assembly Guide   How Fast Is It?   System Benchmark Results   Video Card Drivers Settings   BIOS Settings   Free Software   BIOS Flash Updates And Driver Updates   Help and Support