Installing Hard Drives, Modems, And Device Drivers

With the 32 bit Windows operating systems, their Plug-and-Play compatibility, Internet integration, and high memory and storage capabilities, many of the tasks you perform every day will revolve around these concepts.  Hard Drives, RAM, Modems, and Device Driver installations have become the major upgrade performed on computers, so you should be aware of the installation processes for each.

Hard Drives

Because Microsoft extensively integrates the Internet into it's Windows operating systems, the increased file sizes that come with that integration require larger hard drive sizes.  Knowing the basics of IDE systems is imperative.

Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) are channels that allow two hard drives to be installed on each IDE channel.  Enhanced IDE (EIDE) is basically the placement of 2 IDE channels on each motherboard.  That means you can have up to 4 IDE devices in each EIDE system.

In order for each IDE channel to understand which drive is being used, each drive is given a designation.  The primary drive on an IDE channel is considered the Master, while the secondary drive is the Slave drive.  If you had both as Master or both as Slave, neither drive would work.  You could label the primary 1 and the secondary 2 and it would save the same purpose, but since the early days of IDE it has been referred to as Master/Slave.  This setting is set by jumpers on the back of the hard drive.

In order to communicate with the motherboard, it attaches to the IDE channel with a ribbon cable.  The actual electronics that run IDE are on the motherboard, but the ribbon cable provides the means for the hard drive to communicate.  The ribbon cables are marked with a red wire corresponding to wire #1.  On the connection port of the hard drive there is a pin that is also marked as #1.  Both drives on an IDE channel are connected to a single ribbon cable, meaning there are a maximum of 2 ribbon cables, 2 IDE channels, and 4 IDE devices in a standard computer.

 After the ribbon cable is installed and the hard drive is placed in the system, it's time to let the computer know the hard drive is there.  This is normally done by entering the BIOS and having it scan for IDE devices.  Most new boards don't even require you to do this, as they automatically detect the changes.  You should know that hard drive information is stored in the BIOS.

Next in the installation process is the FDISK command.  You must use FDISK to assign a drive letter on the hard drive.  (i.e. C:, D:, etc.)  Follow the on-screen prompts to create primary and extended partitions.  You can create partitions up to 32GB in size, although you shouldn't make partitions bigger than 15GBs each.

Lastly, you must FORMAT the drive.  When you FORMAT a drive, you create the file system, or FAT, on the drive.  This allows DOS/Windows store files on the drive with the knowledge of where and how that information is stored.  FORMATs erase all information on a drive, so you shouldn't FORMAT a drive with existing information on it unless you have back-ups of those files.  After the FORMAT is complete, you can install an operating system on that drive, or use it for file storage if an existing operating system is present.

Modems

Although it is much easier now, installing a modem can be one of the hardest tasks you'll perform on a computer.  PnP has taken a fair amount of the guess work out of it, but you always can bet that a modem will cause a little bit of trouble before it starts working.

The main problem with modems are that they use a serial port.  WinModems use the serial port that already exists on your computer, making this problem simpler.  Non-WinModems have their own serial port installed, and therefore have the potential to conflict with the existing serial ports on your system.  PnP generally overcomes this problem, but if you are having problems installing a modem try disabling the serial port with the same I/O and IRQ Assignment in the BIOS. 

The other problem with modems are their drivers.  Modems are made by dozens of companies, and therefore use many different drivers.  Before installing a modem, you should make sure you have the correct drivers for the modem you are going to install, and be aware of how to use the "Have Disk" option in the device installation process.

The last piece of information you require for is modem strings.  Modem strings are commands that are given to the modem to make the modem perform certain actions.  The latest versions of Windows don't require you to know these strings, but you should know them.  Here is a list of the standard strings;

Device Drivers

Device Drivers are the software that tells the operating system how to use that device.  Each component in a computer requires a device driver, and later versions of Windows require some software to have drivers as well.  There are two ways in which device drivers are installed; Through Config.sys or through Windows.

Config.sys - This will load the driver in DOS, but not windows.  If you require a device while running in DOS mode, you need to install a device driver for that item. (i.e. DEVICE=C:\MOUSE.SYS)

Windows - When you install a device in Windows, the operating system itself recognizes the change and asks you for the associated Device Driver file.  You can also manually ask the operating system to scan for changes by using the Start-> Settings-> Control Panels-> Add/Remove Hardware Wizard.  You can change device drivers by opening the Device Manager and opening the properties window.  There will be a Tab named "Drivers", and a button labeled "Change Drivers".  In all circumstances, follow the on-screen instructions.