CD-ROM drive installation is a fairly straightforward process.

Your first step is to make sure that all the jumpers are set correctly.

The back of a CD-ROM drive has three sets of jumpers. The MA jumper that designates the drive as the Master, The SL jumper designating the drive as a Slave unit, and CS mode where the computer decides whether the CD-ROM will be the Master or the Slave based on its position on the cable. If at all possible, the Hard Drive should be the Master connected to the Primary IDE controller on your motherboard, and the CD-ROM drive should be the Master connected to the Secondary IDE controller. If you need to connect the CD-ROM to the same IDE controller as the Hard Drive, designate the Hard Drive as the Master and the CD-ROM drive as the slave.

Once you have your Jumpers set you are ready to install the CD-ROM drive into the computer case. To do this first remove the two side panels of your computer case as well as the front face plate of the bay you will be installing your CD-ROM drive into.

Carefully slide the CD-ROM drive into the drive bay making sure that the disc tray is facing the front of your computer. Mount the CD-ROM drive to the cage with small screws going from the slot in the cage into the specially designed holes on the sides of your CD-ROM drive.

Connect one end of the Ribbon Cable to your CD-ROM Drive and the other end to the IDE Controller slot on your Motherboard. If the Hard Drive and The CD-ROM drive are going to be connected to the same IDE slot, connect one of the center connectors to the CD-ROM drive and the end terminal reserve for the hard drive.

Next use the audio cable to connect the CD-ROM drive to your sound card. This will allow you to play audio CD's through your computer.

Plug in a Power supply connector and the CD-ROM drive is fully installed.

Installing the Hard Drive is very similar to installing the CD-ROM drive, which is why we lumped the two together on the same page.

Before installing the Hard Drive you first have to make sure that the jumpers are set properly. Its best to keep your hard drive as the master. Typically, computer setups have two IDE channels which usually hold a Hard Drive and a CD-ROM drive. These channels are able to control two devices, this gives you an availability of four devices on one system. If you plan on building a typical system then make both the CD-ROM drive and the hard drive masters, and plug each of them into a separate IDE channel. If you plan on having more than two drives than keep your main hard drive and CD-ROM drive as the master and set any additional devices as slaves.

This is an example of the back of a fairly standard hard drive. Different companies have different jumper configurations though, so be sure and check your manual and the schematic on the top of your hard drive to be sure of what is correct for your system.

* Cable Select (CS) systems utilize a special cable configuration where the hard drive’s position on the ATA cable determines its master or slave status. In this type of configuration, both drives must have their jumpers set to CS.

Once your jumpers are set properly, slide the hard drive into one of the open half-height bays. You do not need to remove any plastic panels since the hard drive does not need accessibility from the outside.

Insert small screws through the drive bay and into the hard drive on both sides to fasten it securely to the computer case.

Connect the hard drive to the motherboard with the ribbon cable. Since the hard drive should be set to master, you should connect the terminal end of the cable to the drive.

Connect the power supply cable to the hard drive and your installation is complete.