HD jumper settings

[dwwnole1]

I'm about to build my first system, and I'm a little confused when it comes to the jumper cables. Here are my system specs:

Tbird 1.2 266
A7M266
256MB DDR-RAM
IBM 60gxp 41GB
GF Ultra
Philips AE
Toshiba 16X 48X DVD-ROM

My question is should my hard drive use the master drive or the slave drive? I really don't understand that whole master/slave drive setting.

Sorry for the lame question that's probably super easy to answer, but this stuff is all new to me. If someone could tell me which one I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[Spdy_Gonzales]

I understand how someone who never put together a computer with a buddy might be intimidated by the complexity.

First of all, jumpers are small electrical connectors that slide over pins to complete a circuit. These pins are located on the hard drive near the cable and power connectors. The bios determines whether the hard drive is a master or slave by looking at the pins connected by the jumper. The settings options are usually shown on the hard drive.

The cable would be the 2" wide ribbon cable that connects the hard drive to the motherboard. If you have only one drive, it would be considered the master and you use the connector at the end of the ribbon cable. The red stripe on the ribbon cable should be oriented to the pin #1 position on the MB primary connector and the HD connector.

If you had a second hard drive, it would be considered the slave drive. The jumper setting would be set to slave and the drive would be attached to the connector in the middle of the cable. The HD which is designated the master would be the one from which the operating system would boot.

Hope this helps.

I wonder...what is the speed of gravity?