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Table Of Contents

Acronis True Image User’s Guide

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 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 will automatically start

after reboot.

9. Use Acronis True Image 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).