Install A CD Drive!
WHERE DO I BEGIN ?
- You have your CD Rom Drive sitting in front of you, plus you should have a ribbon data cable, (Depending on whether CD Drive will be installed on first or second IDE Channel), your Driver Files on disk, and an audio cable.
If the CD Drive is new you will have all this, plus the instructions. Otherwise you may not have the audio cable, which is not a must-have.
- Now you need to figure out whether to install the Drive to the motherboard on the first IDE channel, which will be shared with the Hard Drive, or on the second IDE channel, or the last option, to the sound card.
INSTALLING CD DRIVE ON FIRST IDE CHANNEL
(Assuming that the IDE channel setting is enabled in CMOS)
- Unscrew the screws holding the cover on the case, pull the cover off and put it aside where you will not fall over it.
- Earth yourself either with an anti-static strap, or touch a metal, non-painted surface (often the back of the case).
- Note how there is a long, ribbon-like data cable, running from the motherboard (older motherboards will have the IDE channels on an I/O Card in slot), to the Hard Drive.
- Now you need to change the jumpers on the hard drive to Master, as at the moment it will be set as Single. Sometimes the jumpers are the same for Single/Master. Some hard drives will have jumper info. on the drive itself, or by the jumpers, in a manual, or lucky last, have a look on the 'net for spec's. on your drive. (I will try to put up a link to a site for this).
- You also need to set the jumpers on the CD Drive to Slave.
- Pull the Ribbon cable off the Hard Drive, and look closely at it. You will notice that there is a red line going down one side of the cable, or faint red markings going down the side. This is PIN 1 And it MUST line up with PIN 1 on the Drives and the motherboard! PIN 1 is usually closest to the power connector, but if you're not sure, look at the ribbon connector on the drive. You should see a tiny number 1 indicating PIN 1.
- Sort out where you are screwing in the CD Drive on the bracket. You may need to reshuffle the drives around, depending on your cable, the length etc.
- On the ribbon cable you will see that two of the connectors are closer to each other and one down at the other end all by itself. Plug the one on the end into the motherboard IDE channel 1 (it should be marked). It's usually best to have the first IDE channel connected to the hard drive. This way the rest of the cable can reach the cdrom drive.
- Once you are satisfied that everything is plugged in right, and if everything is plugged in nice and securely, you are ready to install the CD Drive. Usually I don't put the cover back on until I know everything is going to work fine. There's nothing worse than screwing it all back together again and then having to unscrew it to reset a loose connector.
- Boot up the computer and use the CD Drive installation/driver disk to install the required software to access the drive.
- When all is done, the installation program will tell you to reboot. When it restarts, keep an eye out for the part where the CD Drive loads. If there are any error messages like, Not found, write it down and email me, or look on the 'net for the problem. If there are any problems with the CD Drive not being found, they are generally pretty basic ones which are easily fixed.
Please get in touch with me letting me know what you think about this page and how I might improve it.
HOT SITES!
- CD Rom Driver's Page
- A page that has Drivers for CD Rom Drives and other hardware, organised in an A-Z format.
- Driver Update
- As title says,for all updated CD Rom Drivers.
- General IDE CD Rom Readme
- An excellent resource that has every possible bit of info on IDE CD Drives. Not like a typical Readme, this is totally full of all info.
- CD Rom Installation/info page.
- Very good source for bits that I may have not mentioned.
- FAQ on CD Drives
- The biggest FAQ's that I have seen, with all the info., even how to fix scratched CD's etc.
- An answer to somebody's question on 'How to get Dos to recognise the CD Drive'
- Someone asked the question "How do I get DOS to recognise my CD Drive/", and here is the answer if you too are having this problem.
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Last revised: May 11, 1999