How To Build A PC: Install the Hard Drives

PC cases almost always have a removable hard drive bay located near the front center of the case. If you remove both side panels of your PC case, you'll expose the screws that fasten it in. Simply remove those screws. Then, remove the faceplate cover of your PC case, and push the entire hard drive bay out through the front of the case, until it has been completely removed:



Above: Removing the hard drive bay from an Antec Nine Hundred PC case. Remove the screws on both sides of the bay, and push the bay out through the front of the case.

Discharge the static electricity from your body by touching a piece of metal before handling the hard drives! Once they've been taken out of their anti-static bag, they should be handled with care.

Turn the hard drive bay around, and slide the hard drives into place. They'll be guided by the metallic rails or fins within the bay. When installing two hard drives, I typically place one hard drive on top, leave a gap in the middle (for the case's front fan to circulate air between it) and install the second hard drive in the bottom slot. Simply screw in the hard drives through the side of the bay, and you're ready to place the bay with hard drives back into your case.



Above: Two hard drives ready to be placed within an Antec Nine Hundred case.

Once the hard drives are secure within the bay, carefully place the bay back into the PC case. Make sure that there aren't any wires stuck between the bay and case as you replace them (sometimes those frontal fan wires can accidentally get stuck). Finally, screw in the hard drive bay on both sides, and replace the face plate of your PC case.

On to the next step, Installing RAM >>
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