Installing an internal CD-ROM drive


Tip
CD-ROM drives are becoming as essential as floppy drives for virtually all PCs. Even if you skip all those eye-popping games, it's getting harder to find applications on floppies. Today you can buy 4X CD-ROM drives for not much over $100, and 6X, 8X, and even 10X drives are available at better-than-reasonable prices.
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to add one of the current crop of internal CD-ROM drives, whether you choose an Enhanced IDE or a SCSI model. Pictured here are steps for installing a new EIDE CD-ROM drive. Check PC World Online (http://www.pcworld.com/hereshow.html) for more details plus information about adding a SCSI drive and advice on troubleshooting.
1 Get ready. Check to see if your open 51/4-inch drive bay requires special rails to mount drives -- systems from Compaq, Dell, and other name-brand vendors might. Back up your hard disk and collect all the tools you'll need -- usually a Phillips screwdriver and needle-nosepliers will be sufficient.
2 Check your connections.If your PC is less than two years old, the motherboard probably has two 40-pin EIDE connectors, with one plugged into the hard drive's cable. Don't use that cable for the CD-ROM drive. Use the cable that came with your CD-ROM drive (or buy a cable) and the free EIDE connector. PCs without EIDE connectors need an EIDE card (about $40 if not bundled with the drive).
3 Show who's master. Check your CD-ROM drive's manual to set the jumpers or switches correctly. It should be master if the CD-ROM drive is the only drive on a cable, as we recommend.
4 Mount the drive and install the software. Find Pin 1 on the EIDE connector. The data cable's red wire must connect to Pin 1. Mount the drive. Connect the data cable, then the 4-wire power cable. If you have a sound card,connect the audio cable to the drive. Install the software that camewith the drive, reboot, and put the cover on.
- Stan Miastkowski

Category: Hardware
Issue: Nov 1996
Pages: 183

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