SSD or OPT1

gomesinho · 15 Aug 2011 at 21:34

I have recently built a computer, the plan has been to have two hard drives. One for programmes, and one for storing data.

The details for the second drive is a Western Digital (WD10EARS), link below:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-324-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

It has been my intention to fit this as a slave drive and in order to do this I believe I need to fit jumper cables. I have been on the company website:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/search/1/a_id/1679#jumper

It talks about SSD or OPT1, I have no idea what any of this means. Please can someone shed some light and let me know what I need to do here.

Many thanks

bradders2000 · 15 Aug 2011 at 21:50

Master/slave is for PATA (IDE) drives, you don't need to worry with SATA.

gomesinho · 15 Aug 2011 at 21:53

So in that case it is literally just a matter of plug and play? Will I need to do anything to tell Windows which drive is which?

bradders2000 · 15 Aug 2011 at 21:58

Yup, just plug and play

Well, what you'd do is plug the 'master' drive into port 1 (or 0 if that's how they're numbered), and the 'slave' drive into port 2 (or 1).

gomesinho · 15 Aug 2011 at 22:00

Excellent plug and play are my two favourite words!
I take it these are ports on the mother-board? Excuse me for being a bit of a noob.

bradders2000 · 15 Aug 2011 at 22:08

They sure are.

You'll probably have 4, 6 or 8 of them.

Refer to the motherboard manual to make sure you get the right ones.

Motherboards often have additional 3rd party controllers that add extra ports compared to what the chipset (be it Intel, AMD etc) can handle by itself. Usually you'd stick to using the chipset ports first and then overflow onto the 3rd party controller ones if you really need to.

gomesinho · 15 Aug 2011 at 22:14

Thank you very much for the advice, much appreciated!