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i grabbed this hard drive from my laptop thinking it was a lost cause, now i've found out that i MIGHT be able to save my data but... when it came out of the laptop it had an aluminum cover on it... i took that off thinking i would end up throwing it away anyway so now that i've researched more i'm wondering if i totally messed this up. does it have to have that cover on it? or is it there just to cancel noise in the laptop or keep dust off of it?
any help... appreciated! thanks

this is pic i tried to include is the back of the drive where the aluminum cover was

[1]: https://i.sstatic.net/ms8VQ.jpg

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    Are you referring to a caddy to hold the drive? How about a photo of this actual "aluminum" piece rather than "where the xxx was"?
    – sawdust
    Commented Jun 29, 2023 at 22:09
  • The drive as pictured is totally fine (as long as you didn't remove the other side). The cover might have held it in place inside the laptop though, so the drive might not go back in
    – Cpt.Whale
    Commented Jun 30, 2023 at 20:02
  • I’m voting to close this question because rather than showing us the hard drive itself, your photo should have shown the object the question is about.
    – Joep van Steen
    Commented Jul 1, 2023 at 13:45

2 Answers 2

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We do not see the aluminum cover.

If a plain cover, for that kind of device (like a drive) it is more likely designed as shielding by the designer / manufacturer.

Shielding may also serve to cancel some electronic noise.

If the aluminum is a cover with sides (more likely), it also may be the carrier to allow the drive to be inserted and removed, and done safely. Carrier covers usually have holes in them.

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The aluminium cover you saw was probably an anti static ESD layer just to protect the underside of the drive from random static discharges.

Almost never an issue if you're planning to use the hard drive in an external enclosure on it's own...

But if you're installing it in a tighly packed system (like a laptop) it's usually a good idea to keep the cover on, if the manufacturer had it on originally.

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