Installing a Drive in a 5.25-Inch Drive Bay

When installing a drive, you connect two cables - a DC power cable and an interface cable - to the back of the drive. Your drive's power input connector (to which you connect the DC power cable) resembles the connector shown in Figure 10-4.

Figure 10-4. DC Power Cable Connector

The drive's interface connector is a card-edge connector or a header connector, as shown in Figure 10-5.

Figure 10-5. Drive Interface Connectors

When attaching the interface cable to a drive, be sure to match the colored strip on the cable to pin 1 of the drive's interface connector. For the location of pin 1 on the drive's interface connector, see the documentation that came with the drive.

When disconnecting an interface cable from the system board, be sure to press in on the locking tabs on the cable connector (if any) before disconnecting the cable. When attaching an interface cable to the system board, be sure that the locking tabs snap into place, ensuring that the cable is firmly attached to the connector on the system board.

Most interface connectors are keyed for correct insertion; that is, a notch or a missing pin on one connector matches a tab or a filled-in hole on the other connector (see Figure 10-5). Keying ensures that the pin-1 wire in the cable (indicated by the colored strip along one edge of the cable) goes to the pin-1 end of the connector.

The pin-1 end of a connector on a board or a card is usually indicated by a silk-screened "1" printed directly on th e board or card.

CAUTION: When connecting an interface cable, do not reverse the interface cable (do not place the colored strip away from pin 1 of the connector). Reversing the cable prevents the drive from operating and could damage the controller, the drive, or both.