- 1). Disconnect your computer from any electrical sources.
- 2). Remove your computers' side access panel. This may require the removal of two thumbscrews from the rear face of the computer's case.
- 3). Locate your computer case's hard drive bays. These are usually found beneath the optical drives near the front face of a computer case.
- 4). Insert your hard drive into one of these free drive bays, with the interface connectors facing the back face of the computer case.
- 5). Connect a power connector from your computer's power supply to the rear power connector of the hard drive. SATA hard drives use a SATA power connector that is labeled as such, and EIDE drives use a four pin "Molex" connector.
- 6). Connect a data cable to the back of the hard drive. For EIDE hard drives this will be a pinned connector that may have another device connected to it, as these cables support up to two devices. In the case of SATA, an independent data cable is used that has a plug type connector which is keyed to only match one connection on the back of the hard drive.
- 7). Connect the opposite end of the hard drive's data cable to the motherboard interface. Again, EIDE uses a wide interface with many pins that is labeled on the motherboard for easy identification. This may not be necessary, though, if an already installed cable is used. In the case of a SATA drive, the connector will be identical to the one found on the back of the hard drive, and will also be labeled for identification on the motherboard.
- 8). Replace you computer's side access panel, and reestablish any electrical power severed previously.
- 9). Boot into your computer's operating system, and ensure the drive is functioning by copying a few large files to and from the drive.
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