By Milrika Ekilski

There are a variety of external hard drives on the market these days but most computers still rely on an internal hard drive to store important information. It pays to be able to mount internal hard drives on your own.

Before you can start installing the drive, you need some equipment. They are: an IDE or SATA internal drive (make sure to check the model so that it is compatible with your computer), a screwdriver, IDE cable, screws used to seal the unit off, and anti-static strap (optional)

First and very important step is to make sure all the power cords are disconnected from the power source.

Remove the computer's cover. The driver bay will be easy to spot because it is very distinctive. If you place to add another disk drive into the drive bay, make sure there is enough space available.

Locate the jumpers. They are usually metal pins with small plastic sleeves and slots. Determine the jumper settings according to your usage of the disk drive. If you are using a single drive, select the primary or master option. If you have two disk drives and the drive you are installing will be the main drive, the jumper need to be set as Master, and the other jumper set as the Slave.

Now you may slide the new drive into the drive bay. Please check to make sure all the screw holes are aligned. Now you can use the screwdriver to seal the unit off.

After installing the drive, now you have to configure the IDE cable. There are three kinds of connection: a master connector used to connect to the Master drive, a Slave connector used for Slave drive, and finally the connector named A will be used for the motherboard.

Now is the final step. You have to recheck to make sure all things needed to be done have been done. You may need to tighten all the cable connections you have touched during the installation. Finally, place the covers back and connect the main cable.

Turn the computer on. During the reboot process, your computer will automatically detect the new disk drive. You can check the new disk drive using your My Computer files to make sure the internal hard drive has been loaded and is ready for use.

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