What is a hard drive caddy?

Hard drive caddies are used to encase the HDD, enabling it to be transferred seamlessly from one machine to another while protecting the HDD from being damaged.

Different types of HDD caddies are available based on whether the HDD is a Hot Swap (HS) or a Non Hot Swap (NHS) drive. HDD Hot Swap Caddies are designed to be easily removable, allowing the user to easily swap drives or remove them if required. NHS drives are usually housed in caddies which secure the drive into a static position, which is then screwed or clipped into place to stop any movement.

Some HDD caddies are as simple as a plastic bezel that attaches to the front of the drive whereas some caddies are more involved and include a metal bracket (or enclosure), plastic bezel, drive connector (sometimes called interposer), cable and screws.

When purchasing HDD caddies, it is essential that the caddy is compatible with the server or machine it is being installed into, as well as the disk drive size.