Installing a New DVD Burner
A disc burner easily qualifies as you must-have PC accessory these days, whether you're interested in mixing your own audio CDs, sharing videos or slide shows, or using CDs or DVDs simply to move or archive data. With multiple drives, the system will be able to burn directly from one disc to another, handy when copying CDs for safekeeping.
The DVD burner usually comes in one of two packages that include Retail pack which usually contains the drive, a manual and burning software together with mounting screws, IDE cable, CD audio cable, basic installation instructions and recording, editing and playback software and all the necessary parts are supplied together with the instructions. The other package is OEM Bare drive and this is the bulk drive as supplied to system builders and is manufacturer specific. The main advantage of buying an OEM drive is cost, typically being about £50 less than the retail box drive.
The first important thing is to isolate the power to the PC and disconnect the power cable. Next, it is advisable but not essential to disconnect all the connectors from the back of the PC. Remove the cover or side panels from your PC so as to be able to access the inside. You will then need to make available the external drive bay to fit the drive. There should be a blank plastic cover on the front of the pc over the spare bay, remove the cover and there may be a metal plate that is loosely fastened to the chassis. Gently bending this to & fro should easily break its connection to the chassis, enabling you to remove it and, hey presto, you will have a slot available to insert the drive.
Before installing the drive you need to configure the IDE settings of your drive. It is recommended that the burner is master on the secondary IDE controller so check on the back of the writer and you will find the jumper that has the three options M (Master), S (Slave), CS (Cable Select). Connect the jumper across the M (Master) terminals that are usually the ones nearest to the 40-way IDE connector.
The another DVD or CD drive in PC need to connect this up to the same secondary IDE controller as the DVD burner. This needs to be configured as slave so find the corresponding jumper on this drive and set it to the S (Slave) configuration. Connect a new ribbon cable to the secondary IDE connector to motherboard. The new ribbon cable will have 3 connectors on it: 2 close to one end and the one at the far end are the one to connect to the motherboard.
Slide the DVD drive into the front slot and connect up the 40way socket into the back and the 4-way power connecter to the side of this. The 40-way connector should have a keyway that will allow to only inserting it one way. The ribbon cable will have a stripe down one edge this indicates that pin 1 is at this edge of the cable and this edge (Pin 1) should be the nearest to the power connector. The power connector has two beveled edges and can only be correctly fitted one way. or more sockets on short leads to double up on the connectors. Make sure the IDE and power connectors are fully seated.
Once all the connections are secure you can fasten the drive in place, carefully align the front of the drive with the other drive or the front of the case. Then use two short fine threaded screws in each side of the drive to secure it. There are usually 4 screw holes in each side to accommodate various mountings but only two are necessary to secure it. Make sure you only use short screws to secure the drive because long screws inserted into the side of the drive can easily damage the internal parts of the drive.
I recommend these minimum specification for a 4x speed DVD writer:
| Processor | 1gig min. recommended 2gig |
| Memory | 256meg minimum, recommended 512meg |
| Hard drive | 20gigs minimum free space, recommended 50 gigs |
| Graphics card to suit your requirements not critical, recommended | GForce2 or higher |
| One spare external 5 ¼ drive bay for the writer | |
The DVD writers usually come in one of two packages
Retail Pack:
This usually contains the drive, a manual and burning software together with mounting screws, IDE cable, CD audio cable, basic installation instructions and recording, editing and playback software. I would recommended this type of pack for inexperienced users. All the necessary parts are supplied together with the instructions.
OEM Bare Drive:
This is the bulk drive as supplied to system builders and is manufacturer specific. These drives come just as a bare drive without any supporting hardware or software and the drive may or may not have the manufacturers firmware on it, the firmware may be for a specific equipment manufacturer and will not be supported by the drive manufacturer. The main advantage of buying an OEM drive is cost, typically being about £50 less than the retail box drive.
To install the drive is quite simple and only needs a few basic tools. I will cover the installation of just one burner in a basic PC.
The first and most important thing is to isolate the power to the PC and disconnect the power cable. Next, it is advisable but not essential to disconnect all the connectors from the back of the PC, it's a good idea to make a note of where all the connectors go first. Remove the cover or side panels from your PC so as to be able to access the inside.
You will then need to make available the external drive bay to fit the drive. There should be a blank plastic cover on the front of the pc over the spare bay, remove this cover and behind this there may be a metal plate that is loosely fastened to the chassis. Gently bending this to & fro should easily break its connection to the chassis, enabling you to remove it and, hey presto, you will have a slot available to insert the drive.
Before installing the drive you need to configure the IDE settings of your drive. It is recommended that the burner is Master on the secondary IDE controller so check on the back of the writer and you will find the jumper that has the three options M (Master), S (Slave), CS (Cable Select). Connect the jumper across the M (Master) terminals which are usually the ones nearest to the 40 way IDE connector.
If you already have another DVD or CD drive in your PC you will need to connect this up to the same secondary IDE controller as the DVD writer. This needs to be configured as slave so find the corresponding jumper on this drive and set it to the S (Slave) configuration. This can usually be done without removing the drive if you use a small pair of sniped nose pliers.
There will be a flat ribbon cable from the original drive connected to the motherboard and there should be a spare 40 way connector on it enabling you to connect it to your new drive. You may have to swap this connector round with the one already connected to your CD drive to enable both drives to be connected easily to the cable, it does not matter which plug goes into which drive. I do however recommend that you replace this standard 40 way ribbon cable with a UDMA66 80way cable to allow faster file transfers.
If your new drive is the only one then you will need to connect a new ribbon cable to the secondary IDE connector on your motherboard. Locating this should be fairly simple as there are already two flat cables connected to the board: a 34 way one for your floppy drive and a 40 way one for your hard drive. You should find the secondary IDE connector next to the 40way hard drive one. Your new ribbon cable will have 3 connectors on it: 2 close to one end and the one at the far end is the one to connect to the motherboard. If you have an UDMA cable this motherboard end will be a different colour to the others which are usually black, connect the connector to the motherboard ensuring that the stripe down the edge of the cable is the same way round as the hard drive connector, they usually have locating lugs so as not to be inserted the wrong way but not always.
You can slide the DVD drive into the front slot and connect up the 40way socket into the back and the 4 way power connecter to the side of this. The 40 way connector should have a keyway allowing you to only insert it one way but this is not always the case. The ribbon cable will have a stripe down one edge this indicates that pin 1 is at this edge of the cable and this edge (Pin 1) should be the nearest to the power connector. The power connector has two bevelled edges and can only be correctly fitted one way. If you do not have a spare connector for your new drive you will need to get a power splitter cable which consists of a plug connected to two or more sockets on short leads to double up on the connectors. Make sure the IDE and power connectors are fully seated.
The other connector which you may want to use is the CD audio, this is a cable from the audio output socket on the drive to the CD audio input on your motherboard or sound card. This connector is a small 4 pin connector on the rear of the drive that connects the two screened L & R audio, this plug usually is polarised and clips in but it is not critical if connected in reverse you will just get reverse stereo. You may already have one of these cables connected to your original drive and decide not to use this new drive for playing CD audio and in this case it can be omitted. The other end if this audio cable needs to be connected to the CD or auxiliary input of your sound card and the connectors vary according to your hardware.
Once all the connections are secure you can fasten the drive in place, carefully align the front of the drive with the other drive or the front of the case. Then use two short fine threaded screws in each side of the drive to secure it. There is usually 4 screw holes in each side to accommodate various mountings but only two are necessary to secure it. Make sure you only use short screws to secure the drive because long screws inserted into the side of the drive can easily damage the internal parts of the drive.
Once you are sure all the connections have been made secure and the drive is correctly mounted you can replace the covers on the PC and reconnect all the connectors and the power connector. You are now ready to switch on.
In Windows, when your system boots up you should see your drive in explorer and it should have been allocated a drive letter.
The drive will now function as a CD/DVD reader and writer and all that remains now is to install your software. If you purchased your drive as a Retail Pack then all the software you need to get started will be included on a CD or DVD supplied with the drive otherwise you will need to purchase some software. You cannot copy DVD's or CD's without some sort of software and you need a DVD software player to be able to play DVD movies. I recommend Cyberlink Power DVD as a Player and Record Now Max for your burning software. Installing PowerDVD will enable you to play commercial DVD movies and the first time it is used it will ask you to set the region of your DVD drive & software which is region 2 for UK users, this setting can be changed up to 5 times before it is made permanent so if you plan to play movie imports such as American releases you need to remove this limitation either by software or by the firmware of your drive.
Copying of retail movies is not directly possible without the removal of the encryption encoded onto the DVD and although this is now easily done with the current software available, for legal reasons I decline to include details here.
Although the details given in this article are based on my own experiences and refer to basic systems, no two systems are alike and you must determine the suitability of this information before attempting any modifications. They should not be attempted if you have any doubt, it is better to call in an experienced friend rather than inadvertently damage your system.
We cannot be held responsible for any damage you cause to your system by incorrect installation.
My next article on this subject will cover how to get the best out of your DVD writer and I will attempt to answer any advanced queries you may have sent in to me.