all right I don't know if this is the right section but I just got a cd burner from a friend and I need to hook it up to my computer. Somehow?? Its just the little box where the cd goes.its a BURN- proof 16x10x40x. On the back it has all these little prongy thingys that say: digital audio,analog audio, cable select,slave,master, host interface and power.its a 2001. Says its an I/O Magic Corp. CD-RW DRIVE. Don't know if that helps at all. I'm completely lost. Don't even know where to begin. I do know that my computer has the stuff for a cd burner. I just don't know where it goes. It's a dell.?

You should be able to connect it much like your existing hard drive is connected (i.e. via an IDE cable). There are a number of ways to get this accomplished. First see if you have an additional IDE port on your motherboard. Many motherboards have 2 IDE ports on them and if you follow the cable that goes from your hard drive to the motherboard it might help to locate that port. If you have an empty IDE port then get an IDE cable and plug both ends (one to the motherboard and the other to the CD Burner). If you don't have a second free IDE port on the motherboard then you may notice that the cable that drives your hard drive might have an empty connector on it that you can use to plug another hard drive OR in this case your CD burner. If the cable doesn't have an empty plug then you can run down your local computer store and buy a standard IDE cable (80 pin) that can connect two devices.

So once you connect your CD Burner make sure that the jumper on the back of the CD burner is set to either CSEL (Cable Select) or to the opposite of what your hard drive jumper is set to. i.e. if your hard drive is set to MASTER then set your CD Burner to SLAVE. If your hard drive is set to SLAVE (which I doubt) then set your CD Burner to MASTER. If your hard drive is set to CSEL then set your CD Burner to CSEL.

Good luck.

What you might also want to do is go to:

http://www.iomagic.com/

And look up the model and download the manual for it. It should have picutres about how to install it. Alos, if you have an older version of Windows you may need to download drivers for it.

Thank you for your help I will do that. I am also having someone come over and help me tmrw. Ill let you know how it goes :) thanks!