Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Technology How I Installed a CDROM Drive How I Installed a CDROM Drive I recently installed a CD-Rom drive in my personal computer. Two weeks before I underwent the task of tearing into my computer, I noticed a burning smell coming from it. The smell was my CD-Rom telling me goodbye. I knew that I had to make the decision of whether to install the drive myself or pay someone an outrageous amount of money to do it for me. I chose to take my chances and install my own CD-Rom. The following is a detailed description of how I did it. The first thing I had to do was make sure that the case I own had the space available to insert a CD-Rom drive. My case had plenty of space available, but if it hadn’t, there were a few different ways I could have still installed a new drive. The first option would have been to upgrade the case that contains my computer components. This would have been what I would have done if my case had not had the room. Upgrading the case is not the easiest solution to this problem, but it is the least expensive. The second option would be to buy an external CD-Rom drive, which is much more expensive. The upside about an external drive is that it simply plugs into the back of the computer. The next step was to pick the appropriate drive for my system. Since the price of these drives has come down so low I purchased the fastest CD-Rom that was available. Three different kinds of CD-Rom drives available. The one that I purchased only plays CD’s. There are also drives that can play DVD movies and drives that can record music CD’s and the prices are very low for these as well. I decided to buy a 50X CD-Rom drive, which means that it has the ability to get information off a CD at fifty times the speed that a normal music CD player does. The next thing I did was to physically install the drive into my computer case. Before doing anything further I made sure that the computer was completely disconnected from the power source and I disconnected all cables from the back of the computer. I took off the computer cover, which is accomplished by removing several small screws from the back of the case. I then removed a small cover from the face of the computer where the CD-Rom drive is installed. I slid the drive into the slot from the front and secured it to the frame with the supplied screws. I located the IDE cable, which attaches the drive to the computer, and plugged it into the back of the drive (IDE stands for Integrated Drive Electronics). I then located the power cable and connected it to the drive. These cables can only be plugged in to one place on the drive so it is impossible to mix them up. After I plugged in the IDE cable and the power cable I was ready to test the drive. I prefer to leave the cover off the case when I test the new equipment in case I have to check the wiring or make adjustments. I cannot stress enough that I NEVER work on the inside my computer when it is plugged in, as there are electronic components inside which can carry enough voltage to cause serious injury or death. I proceeded to reconnect the cables on the computer and prepared to start it for the first time with the new hardware. The drive that I bought came with a disk that contains the drivers for the drive. Drivers are software programs that allow the computer to communicate with the new equipment. A new drive simply will not work properly without the correct drivers. My computer has Windows 98 installed on it which allows it to automatically recognize when new hardware has been installed. I started my computer and a message requesting that the drivers be installed came up on the screen. I simply put the disk in the floppy drive and hit the enter key. The drivers were then installed and the new CD-Rom drive was ready for action. Bibliography: Word Count: 696
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