Repairing and Upgrading Your PC

Installing a Hard Disk Drive

The general procedures for installing any hard drive are similar, but the exact steps and the sequence of steps vary depending on the type of drive you are installing—PATA or SATA—and the particulars of your case. The basic steps required to install a hard drive are:

1. Configure the drive as a master or slave device (PATA only).

2. Mount the drive in the chassis.

3. Connect the data cable to the drive and to the PATA or SATA interface.

4. Connect a power cable to the drive.

   Before you remove the case panels to install the hard drive:

5. Restart the system and run BIOS Setup. Note the current configuration—which ATA and SATA ports are in use and the descriptions of the devices that are connected to them. Alternatively, use a diagnostic program such as Everest Home Edition to determine the current configuration of your drives and interfaces.

6. If you are also installing a PATA or SATA interface card or RAID adapter, configure that card per the maker's instructions and attach the cables to it. If that card will replace some or all of the embedded PATA or SATA interfaces, use CMOS Setup to disable those interfaces.

Mounting Arrangements

Whatever provisions your case makes for installing hard drives, once you've removed the cover it will almost certainly be obvious how the hard drive mounts within the case. If not, refer to the hardware documentation.

Some cases use fixed drive bays, which are a fixed part of the chassis structure. A hard drive is installed in a fixed drive bay either ...