Installing a CD or DVD Drive

Preparation

So you want to install a CD drive? Well the first thing you need to do is have a CD/DVD drive to install. So why not go to my page on CD drives and consider what drive you need.

Do you need a SATA or IDE drive? Do you want a DVD burner or a CD Burner? Does it need to play all type of DVDs? Do you need a blu-ray drive? These and more are the questions you need to ask yourself before you choose your drive.

Locating the CD/DVD drives

The next step in this tutorial on installing a CD drive is to locate the CD drives on the computer case. The way to do this is to remove any cables that you may have attached, open up the case and take a peak inside. I would recommend that you wear an antistatic wrist strap while doing all this.

So once the case is opened take a look and hopefully you will find something that looks similar to the photo below.

Setting the Jumpers

This step is probably the most difficult step in the entire tutorial. However the newer SATA CD/DVD drives do not require you too set the jumpers so if you are using a SATA drive, you can skip this whole step. However if you are using IDE drives then you will need to set the jumpers.

To work out where the jumpers need to go you need to ask this question. How many drives (including hard drives) do you want to have in the computer?

If you only have two drives then you can leave the jumpers as default and just put each drive on a different cable. For example: One hard drive on one IDE cable and one CD drive on another IDE cable.

However if you want to have three or four drives then it is necessary to have two drives on the one IDE cable and then you need to set one drive as master and another as slave.

The image below should help you identify where the jumpers are on an IDE CD/DVD drive.

Inserting the CD/DVD Drive

This step is the actual installing of the CD drive. So take the drive place it in its slot and push it in. Put the screws in place and your done.

Installing the IDE cables

In this step we are simply connecting the cables from the motherboard and the power supply to the CD/DVD drive. The cables from the motherboard will either be the SATA cable or theIDE Cable. And the power cable will either be the normal peripheral power cable or the SATA power cable. So if you are using an IDE CD drive then you will use the IDE cables and those with the SATA drives will use SATA cables.

In the images I will be using the IDE cables but connecting SATA cables is very easy so you should have no problems.

Connecting the IDE Cable

To connect the IDE cable simply place the IDE cable in the motherboard (like the image shows) and place one of the other ends into the CD/DVD drive.

Often the IDE cable will only go in one way.

Note - SATA cable users: The sata cable is very easy to install. It will only go in one way and you can see the SATA ports on the right (the red ports) in the image.

When inserting the IDE cable into the CD/DVD drive always place the red wire of the IDE cable closer to the power cable.

Connecting the Power Cables

The next step in this tutorial on installing a hard drive is to connect the peripheral power cables. These will only ever go in one way and you can find a tutorial with images here.

Peripheral Power Cable (4 Pin)

 A peripheral power cable is used to connect the older IDE hard drives and cd/dvd drives to the power supply. There are four cables (1 yellow, 2 black and 1 red). Sometimes there are eight cables, this happens when there is another cable coming out of it to connect to another hard drive or cd drive.

These peripheral power connectors were the original power cables in a computer and were used most commonly for hard drives or cd drives. However, they are sometimes used in an array of tasks in the computer: additional motherboard power, video card power, fans, lighting etc.

This cable is commonly called the 4 pin molex power cable, but this can be confused with the 4 pin main power cable which is a molex cable too. This power cable can sometimes be found with only two cables. This version of the power cable is for fans in the case so do not attach it to your hard drive or cd drive.

The picture above explains how to install the peripheral power connector into a hard drive. To see a photo of the cable being connected to a cd drive click here.

The first step to connecting power to a hard drive is identifying the 4-pin peripheral cable. Next get the hard drive you are connecting to and place the power cable inside the hard drive like the photo demonstrates. The power cable will only go in one way and the yellow cable(s) will be closest to the edge of the hard drive.