PLEASE, people, if you need to remove a hard drive from a laptop computer for data privacy purposes, PUT THE CADDY AND SCREWS BACK IN THE UNIT OR IN THE BOX when you want to sell it off!  I understand that some corporations need to remove and destroy hard drives from their surplus laptops out of irrational paranoia (you DO know that a zeroed hard drive’s old data is only readable to someone with a clean room and scanning tunneling electron microscope and tons of highly specialized skills, right? RIGHT?) but there’s simply no excuse for not taking 60 seconds to unscrew up to four screws, put them in a piece of folded-over clear tape, and shoving the entire caddy assembly and taped-up screws and interface connector (where applicable) back in the unit!

The problem is that purchasing a laptop with no hard drive caddy and related equipment usually means being completely unable to install a hard drive into the unit without trying to source a caddy from another source.  That means extra time, money, and frustration…and it also means that you’re less likely to sell your laptop!  If you do sell it, you’ll get significantly less since it’s not working and the buyer can’t just buy a hard drive and slap it in.

If you run a business that removes hard drives from laptops and then sells them, be it by surplus sales or auctions or eBay stores, PLEASE put the hard drive caddy back in the unit!