A bare hard drive is a hard drive without any protective coating or material. This means that the hard drive can be damaged by scratches, dust, and other factors. OEM hard drives are also not as protected as bare drives.
When you are shopping around for a new hard-drive for your computer or laptop, you may run across the terms Bare and/or OEM, but are they actually that different from other hard-drives or are they the same? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answers to a confused reader’s questions.
Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.
Photo courtesy of Asten (Flickr).
The Question
SuperUser reader Pankhuri Gupta wants to know more about ‘Bare’ and ‘OEM’ hard-drives:
What do you actually get with a ‘Bare’ or ‘OEM’ hard-drive?
I researched the terms and found that ‘bare’ hard-drives do not come with cables or manuals. But I am still confused about one thing. Do they have the connector chip on them? Everywhere I looked online I saw images of ‘bare’ hard-drives displayed with exposed spindles and platters.
I do not believe that I will need any cables or other ‘accessory’ parts to replace the old hard-drive in my laptop.
The Answer
SuperUser contributors Journeyman Geek and Fiasco Labs have the answer for us. First up, Journeyman Geek:
Followed by the answer from Fiasco Labs:
In general, OEM packaging looks like this:
You have a hard-drive in a sealed bag and that is it. No SATA cables, manuals, or anything else is included.
Hard-drives absolutely do not ship with exposed platters.
Depending on the type of hard-drive and the SKU, you may get some additional literature (like manuals), a SATA cable, or in the case of some SSDs, a ‘migration kit’ that would let you hook up your hard-drive over USB, image it, and then swap hard-drives.
I would also add that if it is a pre-built computer (or server in some cases), replacing the ‘OEM’ hard-drive that came standard in it with your own hard-drive (‘OEM’ or otherwise) may void the warranty. Some may also have specific firmware versions or be branded to the system builder.
Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.
