Reference number: CH000413

Installing a PC IDE/EIDE hard drive.

Question:

Installing a PC IDE/EIDE hard drive.

Answer:

Buying tips and help
How to determine the type of hard disk drive
Before getting started
Set Jumpers
Drive Bays
Attach cables
BIOS setup
Software setup
Troubleshooting

Buying tips and help

If you have not already purchased a hard disk drive please see our hard disk drive buying tips section help before continuing.

How to determine the type of hard disk drive

Additional information about how to determine the type of hard drive can be found on document CH000497.

Before getting started

1. Difficulty of installing computer hard drive should be a 3 out of 5.
2. If present, backup any important data on the hard disk drive currently within the computer.
3. Ensure you have a working bootable floppy diskette.
4. Write down important information from the top or bottom of the hard disk drive such as the Model Number, Serial Number and specifications.
5. Ensure you are familiar with ESD and its potential dangers.
6. When physically installing the hard disk drive, ensure the computer is powered down and unplugged.

Set the Jumpers

Before installing the hard disk drive the jumpers must be properly set on the drive itself. On the back of the hard drive should be small pins with a small plastic piece known as a jumper block or shunt. This jumper must cover the appropriate pins to set the drive as a Single, Dual Master, Dual Slave or Cable Select.

If this is going to be the only hard disk drive, set the drive as Master.
If this is going to be a second drive, set the jumper as Slave.

It is important to note that when installing a hard disk drive on an IDE / EIDE interface that if other drives such as a Zip Drive or CD-ROM drive are present that those devices must be changed appropriately. For example, setting the hard drive to Master if a CD-ROM is present on the same cable it must be set as Slave.

Drive Bays

Once the Jumpers have been set appropriately, open the computer and determine the type of drive bay present within the computer. Generally, most computers will have an option between a 5.25-inch Bay and a 3.5-inch Bay. Today, all IDE/EIDE hard disk drives are 3.5-inch. If your computer has an available 3.5-inch bay it is highly recommend that this drive bay be used to install the hard disk drive, as no additional brackets will be required.

If the computer does not have an available 3.5-inch Bay, generally it is required that a mounting bracket be used. These brackets will convert the drive bay from a 5.25-inch Bay to a 3.5-inch Bay. Most hard disk drive manufactures will include these brackets with the hard disk drive. Unfortunately, these mounting brackets will not work with all types of computers. If you are unable to utilize these brackets consider the below suggestions.

1. Contact the computer manufacturer for drive brackets compatible with your computer.
2. Visit a local computer store for alternate brackets.
3. If your computer has a 5.25-inch drive below an available 5.25-inch Bay, install the hard disk drive by just screwing in one side of the drive to keep it stationary. The 5.25-inch drive should provide support for the hard disk drive, while the screws should hold the drive.

Links to various computer and hardware manufacturers can be found on our Support Listing.

Attach Cables

Once the jumpers have been verified and the hard disk drive is attached and secured to the computer case, connect the cables to the computer hard disk drive. Start first with the IDE/EIDE interface cable (gray flat ribbon cable). This cable will have a blue / red line or dotted line on one side of the cable, this indicates Pin 1. Almost always this side of the cable will point to the side where the power connects.

If the IDE/EIDE cable is not already connected to the Interface card or Motherboard, connect that cable now. If this is the only hard disk drive it is recommended that the drive be connected to PRIMARY 0, PRI 0, PRIMARY 1 or PRI 1.

Once the IDE/EIDE cable has been connected to the computer hard disk drive, connect the power cable. This cable is almost always keyed and will only go in one direction. Look at the connection on the drive itself and then the cable to connect this cable in properly.

CMOS Setup

Once the hard disk drive has been installed, place the case back onto the computer and connect the keyboard, monitor and power to the computer (we recommend that you do not connect all the cables yet, if problems are experienced you may have to disconnect all the cables again).

Once connected, turn on the computer and as the computer is booting, enter BIOS setup. Verify that the hard disk drive is being seen or that the hard disk drives are setup as Auto. Older computers may require that you enter the hard disk drive BIOS values, these values are sometimes found on the hard disk drive itself or with the included documentation. In addition, a large listing of these values can be found on Computer Hope.

Additional information and help with BIOS can be found on our BIOS page.
Listing of CMOS Hard disk drive settings can be found on our HDD specs page.

Software Setup

Once the hard disk drive has been setup in CMOS or appears to be detected in CMOS, the hard disk drive must be setup through the software. Using a bootable floppy diskette, boot from the diskette to prepare the setup:

If you plan on installing MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME, you will need to setup the hard disk drive using the FDISK utility.

If you plan on installing Windows NT / Windows 2000 you can utilize the Windows NT setup to create a NTFS partition or FAT32 partition if using Windows 2000.

If you need to setup the hard disk drive in Windows XP please see document CH000588.

If you plan on using another operating such as Linux or Unix, the partition or system setup should be able to be done utilizing a bootable diskette or CD provided by the vendor or developer of the operating system you plan on installing.

Troubleshooting

If additional issues are encountered during or after the installation of the hard disk drive, please refer to our main hard disk drive page for additional help and information.