Dell OptiPlex Gxi - Manual (Page 94)

7-8 Dell OptiPlex GXi Low-Profile Systems Reference and Installation Guide
Figure 7-13. Attaching Hard-Disk Drive
Cables
9. If it is not already connected, connect the other
end of the EIDE cable to the IDE1 connector on
the system board.
To locate the IDE1 connector, see Figure 6-1.
10. Connect a DC power cable to the power input con-
nector on the back of the drive (see Figure 7-13).
Check all connectors to be certain that they are prop-
erly cabled and firmly seated.
11. Replace the expansion-card cage as instructed in
“Replacing the Expansion-Card Cage” in Chap-
ter 5.
12. Replace the computer cover. Then reconnect your
computer and peripherals to their power sources,
and turn them on.
13. Insert a bootable diskette (such as the diagnostics
diskette) into drive A, and turn on the computer
system.
14. Enter the System Setup program, and update the
DRIVE 0 category under DRIVES: PRIMARY .
See “Drives: Primary and Secondary” in Chapter 2.
After you update the drive setting, reboot the system.
15. Partition and logically format your drive, as
described in the next subsection, before proceed-
ing to the next step.
16. Test the hard-disk drive by running the Hard-
Disk Drive(s) Test Group in the Dell diagnostics.
See your Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for
information on running the diskette-based diagnos-
tics and troubleshooting any problems that may
occur.
17. Install your operating system on your hard-disk
drive.
Refer to the documentation that came with your
operating system.
Partitioning and Logically Formatting
Your EIDE Hard-Disk Drive
EIDE hard-disk drives must be physically formatted, par-
titioned, and logically formatted before they can be used
to store data. Every hard-disk drive from Dell is physi-
cally formatted before it is sent to you.
NOTE: On systems with hard-disk drives larger than
2 gigabytes (GB), create a primary partition of
2 GB and divide the remaining capacity into partitions
of 2 GB or less. For example, a system with a 2.5-GB
hard-disk drive would have a primary partition of 2 GB
(drive C) and a second partition of 500 megabytes (MB)
(drive D). Hard-disk drives must be partitioned this way
because MS-DOS–based operating systems (including
Windows NT when using a FAT16 file system) do not sup-
port drive partitions larger than 2 GB.
To partition and logically format your hard-disk drive,
use the program(s) offered by your operating system.
For MS-DOS, use the fdisk and format commands to
perform these procedures. The fdisk and format com-
mands are described in the MS-DOS reference
documentation.
CAUTION: You must match the colored strip
on the EIDE cable with pin 1 on the IDE1 con-
nector to avoid possible damage to your
system.
EIDE cable
IDE1
connector
DC power
cable