Jumper
Essentially a simple on/off switch in which a plastic-covered metal box is placed over two pins to close a circuit. Jumpers are usually used to set a device's attributes.
In the case of a IDE hard drives, a jumper is used to enable options like Master/Slave, Cable Select or 4096 cylinder truncation. Inserting a jumper from the top row to the bottom row enables the option for that particular position. The bottom row of pins are active, and the top row of pins (identified by the one missing pin in that row) are all grounded (inactive). It is safe to "store" unused jumpers on in this upper row.
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