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Step 1: Set Jumpers

Older IDE hard drives require you to set jumpers on the back of the drive. Since new computers are primarily SATA, setting this to "Cable Select" should be good. Since hard drive manufacturers have different jumper settings, it's impossible to tell you how to set it to cable select. More than likely though, it's written on the drive itself somewhere and it should be in the manual if you still have it.

Step 2: Install hard drive into a drive bay

Slide the hard drive into one of the lower bays in the case. Some cases require you to screw in the hard drive to secure it into the bay and others have a "no tools required" type setup. Go ahead and secure the drive however it is set up in your case.

Step 3: Connect IDE cable to motherboard

On your motherboard is a connector labeled "IDE".

Locate this and line up your IDE cable. There should be an outward notch on the cable and it should line up similar to the image below.

Note:Since we did not install an IDE hard drive in our original build, the image below is taken from one of our older builds but the installation procedure is still the same.

Once it is lined up, firmly press down and it should slide into place. Like with all cables, do not force it. If it does not go in the first time, you might have it backwards. If your cable does not have an outward notch, the red line on the IDE cable indicates pin #1 so you can line that up with pin #1 on your connector.

Step 4: Connect the IDE cable to hard drive

Connect the other end of the IDE cable we just plugged into the motherboard, into the back of the hard drive. Similar to the motherboard, the IDE cable should only go in one way but if it does not have the notch, line pin #1 up with the red line on the cable. Pin #1 is almost always located closest to the power connector.

Step 5: Give it power

Connected to your power supply are several molex power connectors. Connect one of these to the back of the hard drive. One side has two angled corners so it can only go one one way.

Next Lesson: Installing a CD/DVD Drive

Now that we've installed our IDE Hard Drive, it's time to go to Lesson 14a: Installing a SATA DVD Drive.