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On 23/04/13 17:10, Neil Winchurst wrote: > On 23/04/13 15:21, bad apple wrote: >> That's not that old actually, some of us here on this list have got >> proper antiques in our garages! A 2006 vintage machine will quite >> possibly have both SATA and IDE ports on the mainboard and will in all >> likelihood boot from USB as well. >> >> Can we just clarify then, is the replacement DVD drive you have a SATA >> or an IDE unit? >> Does your motherboard have SATA, IDE or both types of connectors? >> > I have now looked in the tower. The board is marked ASRock > 939Dual-SATA2. Is that info any use? I do not know enough about this > to recognise if there are any IDE ports present, though I cannot see > any likely candidates. > > There is one ribbon cable attached to the motherboard but not attached > to anything else. The loose end, female, would plug into one port on > the back of the new drive, it appears. But I don't to force anything. > You can see how little I know, never been interested in the hardware. > > Neil > > Ah, perfect... here are your specs: http://www.asrock.com/mb/ULi/939Dual-SATA2/ You do indeed have SATA and IDE interfaces on that board, so you're in luck. Sounds like you even have a disconnected IDE ribbon ready and waiting for it as well - just plug it in, plug in a spare molex (the 4-pin plug from the PSU) and you should be good to go. Don't put the side back on the case yet though as you may have more fiddling to do. Specifically, look on the back of the DVD drive next to the power/data sockets, there will be a jumper block. The DVD drive will have a sticker on it with the legend for the jumper setup - check and make sure that it's setup for "cable select", this will save a lot of potential pain. And then try and boot a disc - you may need to set the boot order up in the BIOS to prioritise DVD over HDD, unless you have an option to hit a key during startup to get a one time boot menu (typically F12, but again, manufacturers tend to randomly move them around sometimes). Sounds like you're nearly there. Cheers -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq