Appendix B. Hard disks and BIOS setup
The appendices below provide you with extra information on the hard disk
organization, how information is stored on disks, how disks should be installed in
the computer and plugged into the motherboard, configuring disks with BIOS,
partitions and file systems, and how operating systems interact with disks.
B.1 Installing
hard
disks in computers
B.1.1 Installing
a
hard disk, general scheme
To install a new IDE hard disk, you should do the following (
we will assume you
have powered OFF your PC before you start!
)
:
1. Configure the new hard disk as
slave
by properly installing jumpers on the
board of its controller. Disk drives generally have a picture on the drive that
shows the correct jumper settings.
2. Open your computer and insert the new hard disk into a 3.5’’ or 5.25’’ slot with
special holders. Fasten down the disk with screws.
3. Plug the power cable into the hard disk (four-threaded: two black, yellow and
red; there is only one way you can plug in this cable).
4. Plug the 40- or 80-thread flat data cable into sockets on the hard disk and on
the motherboard (plugging rules are described below). The disk drive will have
a designation on the connector or next to it that identifies Pin 1. The cable will
have one red wire on an end that is designated for Pin 1. Make sure that you
place the cable in the connector correctly. Many cables also are “keyed” so that
they can only go in one way.
5. Turn your computer on and enter BIOS setup by pressing the keys that are
displayed on the screen while the computer is booting.
6. Configure the installed hard disk by setting the parameters
type
,
cylinder
,
heads
,
sectors
and
mode
(or
translation mode
; these parameters are written on the
hard disk case) or by using the IDE autodetection BIOS utility to configure the
disk automatically.
7. Set the boot sequence to A:, C:, CD-ROM or some other, depending on where
your copy of Acronis True Image Home is located. If you have a boot diskette,
set the diskette to be first; if it is on a CD, make the boot sequence start with
CD-ROM.
8. Quit BIOS setup and save changes. Acronis True Image Home will automatically
start after reboot.
9. Use Acronis True Image Home to configure hard disks by answering the
wizard’s questions.
10. After finishing the work, turn off the computer, set the jumper on the disk to
the
master
position if you want to make the disk bootable (or leave it in
slave
position if the disk is installed as additional data storage).
B.1.2
Motherboard sockets, IDE cable, power cable
There are two slots on the motherboard to which the hard disks can be connected:
primary IDE
and
secondary IDE
.
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