Computer jumpers effect on hard drive

Hello Mr. Scott,

Here is your answer:

Jumpers are used in hard drives to assign one drive as master (primary) and the other drive as slave (secondary).  As the data cannot travel to and from both hard drives simultaneously henceforth priority on the drives needs to be designated.

Jumper itself is a small metal device with plastic cover, used for insulation. The metal plates works as a switch to make or break connection. Jumpers are located at the back of the hard drive, the jumper settings can be seen at the back or at the top of hard drive depending on the type of vendor. Other details can be found by visiting the vendor website, goto the hard drive company’s website and select Jumper settings/Jumper guide.

The two hard drives are connected using an IDE (Integrated Device/Drive Electronics) cable, the cable interconnects the two drives with the motherboard, such that the motherboard and master drive are connected at each ends and slave drive is connected between them. Most hard drive come in a factory default setting of cable select. The Cable select means that the main board will itself assign drives as primary or secondary and jumpers setting are important.