Specifications

INSTALLATION
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Before installing the drive in the computer, you must determine how the jumpers on the Maxtor hard drive
are to be set for your system based upon the use of the Maxtor hard drive as either a Master or Slave device.
Maxtor hard drives are shipped with the Master jumper setting enabled.
IMPORTANT: If a Maxtor hard drive is being added to a system on the same cable with an existing IDE
device, it may be necessary to re-configure the jumpers on the existing device to insure that the system will
properly recognize both devices. Information regarding the correct jumper configurations on other IDE devices
is available in their product documentation or from the manufacturer of that device.
Systems Using Cable Select
IMPORTANT – Most systems do not use this feature. Unless you are sure that your computer system
supports Cable Select, do not set up the drive with this feature enabled.
Maxtor hard drives support Cable Select. The Cable Select method of drive identification allows the system to
identify Master and Slave IDE devices based upon the position (connector) the IDE device is attached to on
the interface (ribbon) cable.
A special IDE cable select interface (ribbon) cable is required for systems using the Cable Select feature.
The ribbon cable included in Maxtor kits is a standard IDE cable and cannot be used in systems that use Cable
Select. Systems that use Cable Select do not support the standard Master/Slave definitions described above and
the standard IDE interface (ribbon) cable cannot be used on these systems.
If your system supports this feature, refer to the system user’s manual or contact the system manufacturer for
specific procedures for installing hard drives. On Maxtor DiamondMax 2880 hard drives, Cable Select is enabled
by installing a jumper on J48.
Relationship to Other IDE Devices
IDE devices such as a CD-ROM or tape drive also have the jumper definitions for Master and Slave. The
difference between a hard drive and these devices is that they require special software drivers in order to
communicate properly with the system. Hard drives do not require additional drivers to communicate with the
system. Because of limitations in the software drivers provided with CD-ROMs, tape drives and other IDE
devices, Maxtor does NOT recommend that a hard drive be a slave to a CD-ROM or other IDE devices only
to another hard drive. The software drivers for non hard drive IDE devices do not provide adequate support
for communications to a hard drive as a slave device. Maxtor recommends that hard drives be the master to any
other IDE devices except another hard drive.