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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 > > Some more info on your board 'cos as you say, this is all new to you - there's a relatively high-res pic here: http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/tradeshows/2005/tourdetaiwan/939Dual-SATA2-FACE.jpg Using that pic as a reference against your actual hardware, the two connectors at bottom left (one blue, one black) marked ATA 133 are your IDE connections. They have keyed connectors so you can't plug in the cable the wrong way around, as will the vast majority of IDE drives, whether HDD or DVD. Note that the blue one is designated IDE1 (primary) and the black one is IDE2 (secondary). The legend on the board next to them helpfully states that any hard drives should be connected to IDE1 and DVD/CD units to IDE2 (you can actually ignore this, but that's another story). Your spare ribbon is probably connected to IDE2 - is there anything connected to IDE1 already (probably your HDD I'd guess). For reference, the SATA connectors, which can be used to attach any modern HDD/DVD/CD, are the two much smaller black connectors directly above the "to optimize compatibility..." legend and below the copper coloured ASRock heatsink - they are also labelled SATA1 and SATA2. There is a 3rd (presumably SATA3, although it's obscured) red SATA port just a little to the right of both and directly below where SATA II is printed on the board. So now you know what you're dealing with. Regarding the Master/Slave business (my god, that is one thing I seriously do *not* miss having to arse about with anymore) you're correct, you could jumper the DVD to Master. However, if your spare ribbon has two free connectors at the end of it, as is common, you'll then have to be careful which one you connect to the DVD. Simply setting the jumper to Cable Select lets the hardware autosense and set itself up accordingly: trust me, this will save headaches. As you say, you've already got the system set up so it boots from DVD first so once you're connected up you should be on the home strait. I expect to see an email proclaiming successful install of a fresh OS posted from your new system later tonight :] Cheers -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq