How to Install DVD Writer or CD Writer , Internal or External SCSI , IDE or USB

Phillips screwdriver

Suitable CD or DVD drive

A pc with a spare 5.25” drive bay

Audio cable “ runs from the sound card to the drive, enables you to play audio cd’s and listen to them via the sound card”

A dual or single device IDE cable if required

Before beginning any kind of work with computer components, always remember to earth yourself to reduce the risk of ESD “ electro static discharge “ damage to your computer or any of it’s components.

Internal Drives

IDE CD and DVD Writer Installation

Remove the blanking plate on the front of the computer, covering the slot where the drive will go.

On the back of the drive itself look for the device jumpers it will have 3 settings “ master , slave or cable select “ choose cable select, this will make sure the drive works regardless of whether the drive is connected to a master or slave position on the IDE cable.

Slide the drive into the computer and connect the IDE cable.

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When it comes to IDE cables and connections here we have a few choices. Pretty much all computers will have two IDE channels / ports on the motherboard ,

The primary or first will have the computers primary hard drive connected as the master, the other connection on the cable “ the slave or secondary “ may be free, you can use this,

But it is preferable to put any other drives onto the secondary IDE channel if it’s free. This way a channel does not get too overloaded if the hard drive and the CD or DVD drive are moving lots of data around.

computer-adviser how to install dvd writer article So in order of preference

1. Use the master connection on the secondary IDE channel / port if it’s available , if not

2. Use the slave connection on the secondary IDE channel / port if it’s available.

3. Otherwise use the slave connection of the Primary IDE channel / port.

4. If you have no free IDE connections, you could always add a PCI IDE card.


Ok so once you’ve connected the IDE cable , now connect the power.

Next connect the sound cable this will run from the Audio port on the CD or DVD Drive to the connection on the sound card, it generally says something along the lines of CD or Input on the card.

Once all the cables are connected, secure the drive in place with 4 small Phillips screws that should have come with the drive. It’s important to secure the drive after connecting the cables as most cases make it a little hard to get all the cables in with the drive secured.

Now the drive is installed, put the case back on and power up, hopefully the computer will now see the drive.

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To Install an Internal SCSI CD or DVD drive make sure the drives SCSI number setting does not conflict with any others as above.

Next connect slide the drive into the chosen drive bay, connect the SCSI data cable.

Make sure the end of the cable is terminated, this might be after the drives connection or actually on the drive itself.

Otherwise the drive will not be recognised.

Next connect the power and the audio cables.

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Troubleshooting

Firstly the drive setting in the BIOS is not set to auto detect the drive.

To rectify this, reboot your computer and hold down the BIOS entry key , generally the key is the F2 or Del key, but not always. Once you power on your computer it will tell you the BIOS entry key with something along the lines of “ Press **key to enter setup “ .

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Once you’ve entered the BIOS check the drive settings of the cable and channel that you installed the drive on for example secondary , master or primary slave .

Make sure the setting is Auto / Detect If the drive is still not being recognised the problem will probably be with the jumper settings on the rear of the drive, so I’m afraid your going to have to remove the drive to check this.

Other things to try are a different IDE cable as they do sometimes fail.

To verify this or the integrity of the drive, try to find something else to plug into the cables connection. This will tell you if the problem lies with the cable or the CD or DVD drive.

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External Types

External drives are generally very easy to install

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USB CD & DVD Drives

After a few seconds the computer will recognize the drive and may install the drivers itself if your version of Windows has a compatible driver within it’s driver database. But more often than not it will ask you for a drivers CD.

Just insert the CD and then point Windows towards this and it will then install the drivers and it’s now installed.

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External SCSI CD & DVD Drives

On each device there will either be a set of jumpers or a number panel, use this to choose an number that is not in use.

To check which number are in use , you can either get this from the devices section within control panels or , just reboot the pc and you will see the SCSI card authenticate each device it’s connected to.

Once you’ve chosen the ID, power off your computer and connect the device.

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Always make sure the computer is switched off before adding or removing SCSI devices. Also make sure that if nothing else is connected to the drive a SCSI terminator or termination on the drive is set to enabled.

This tells the SCSI chain of devices that the CD / DVD drive is the last device in the chain. If it’s not terminated and it is the last device the whole computer will just hang until the connection times out which can be a few minutes.

Once connected the system will automatically pickup your CD / DVD drive and you should be ok to begin using.

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External Parallel CD & DVD Drives

Connect the drive , and simply install the software and the drive should now work fine.

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External Firewire CD & DVD Drives

But sometimes it will ask you for a drivers CD. Just insert the CD and then point Windows towards this and it will then install the drivers and it’s now installed.

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