Installing Multiple Western Digital IDE Hard Drives

The IDE hard disk drives available from Gateway 2000 can be used alone or with another IDE drive. Some of our early local bus systems can handle up to four IDE drives connected to the IDE adapters on the system board. You can have as many as four IDE drives on our PCI systems by adding a second IDE adapter. Before you actually install a new hard drive, you must configure it for your system's new hard drive setup, that is, whether you are replacing the old drive or keeping the old drive(s) and adding a second, third, or fourth drive.

To configure Western Digital IDE hard drives, set jumper block J8 to match the drive setup for your computer.

To configure a single drive:

• Make sure that no jumpers are installed on J8.

To configure the drives for a two-drive installation:

If you want two IDE drives in your system, you must designate one as the primary or master drive, and the other as the secondary or slave drive.

1. Configure the master drive by installing a jumper on pins 5-6 of J8.
2. Configure the slave drive by installing a jumper on pins 3-4 of J8.
3. Connect the drive to your system as described in your User's Guide or document 1138.
4. Run the system setup utility and format the drive as described in your User's Guide or document 1139.

If you have a Gateway 2000 local bus computer system, you may be able to install up to four hard disk drives. Look at your system board to determine if you have two IDE connectors or just one.

To configure a third drive:

1. Configure it as a single drive; no jumper installed on J8.
2. Connect it to the secondary IDE drive connector on the system board.
3. Connect the drive to your system as described in your User's Guide or document 1138.
4. Run the system setup utility and format the drive as described in your User's Guide or document 1139.

To configure a fourth drive for installation:

1. Change the configuration of the third drive from single to master by installing a jumper on pins 5-6 of J8.
2. Configure the fourth drive as the slave to the third drive by installing a jumper on pins 3-4 of J8.
3. Connect the drive to your system as described in your User's Guide or document 1138.
4. Run the system setup utility and format the drive as described in your User's Guide or document 1139.

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