Installing Drives; Removing And Replacing Front-Panel Inserts; Figure 7-1. Drive Locations - Dell OptiPlex GXi Reference And Installation Manual

Chapter 7

Installing Drives

Y
our Dell computer has three drive bays for installing
the following types of drives (see Figure 7-1):
•
The externally accessible drive bays at the front of
the computer consist of one 3.5-inch drive bay (dedi-
cated to a 3.5-inch diskette drive) and one 5.25-inch
bay that can hold one half-height, 5.25-inch
device—typically a tape drive or CD-ROM drive.
•
The hard-disk drive bay (located to the left of the
externally accessible drive bays) can hold a 3.5-inch
enhanced integrated drive electronics (EIDE) or
small computer system interface (SCSI) hard-disk
drive.
The next two sections contain information that you will
need in several of the installation procedures described
later in the chapter. The remaining sections of this chap-
ter cover each type of drive installation.
NOTE: In all of the following procedures, left and right
refer to your left and right as you face the front of the computer
(see Figure 7-1).
hard-disk
drive bay (internal)
front of
computer
externally accessible
drive bays

Figure 7-1. Drive Locations

R
emoving and Replacing
Front-Panel Inserts
Empty drive bays contain a front-panel insert to protect
the inside of the computer from dust particles and ensure
proper airflow within the computer. Before you install a
drive in an empty drive bay, you must first remove the
front-panel insert.
To remove the insert covering the 5.25-inch bay, follow
these steps:
1. Turn off the system, including any attached
peripherals, and disconnect all the alternating
current (AC) power cables from their power
sources.
Installing Drives 7-1