Assuming your hard
drive(s) has already been physically installed in the system case, you must now
connect it up to the power supply and motherboard.
Attach the power cable. Choose an unused
power lead from the power supply and plug it into the power plug on the
hard drive. The plug will be keyed so that it will only go in the correct
way.
Attach the ribbon cable to the hard drive. The ribbon cable goes from the primary IDE controller of the
motherboard to the drive. Make sure the red edge of the ribbon cable is in
line with Pin 1 on the drive. If you can’t see Pin 1 marked, then it is
the pin closest to the power connector. If you place the cable on
backwards, you may get strange errors that make your new drive sound like
it has died already. If you are adding a second drive, simply choose a
connector on the same ribbon cable that is not used. Most ribbon cables
come with two connectors: one on the end and one mid-way. In this case, it
doesn't matter which plug goes in what drive. The computer looks at the
master/slave jumpers to see which one is “C”. Make sure to connect the
other end of the ribbon cable to the primary IDE connector on the
motherboard. Pin 1 will be labelled on the motherboard, and align the red
edge of the cable with it. Also, ATA-66/100 drives must have an 80-wire cable
instead of the older 40-wire’s. The ribbon cable will generally be
included with the hard drive or motherboard.
Double-Check your work. Make sure everything
is tight.