Caddy (hardware)
In computer hardware, a caddy is a container used to hold some medium, such as a CD-ROM. If the medium is a hard disk drive, the caddy is also referred to as a disk enclosure. Its functionality is similar to that of the 3.5" floppy disk's jacket. The purpose of a disk caddy is to protect the disk from damage when handling; its use dates back to at least the Capacitance Electronic Disc in 1981, and they were used in initial versions of Blu-ray Discs, though as a cost-saving measure newer versions use hard-coating technology to prevent scratches and do not need a caddy. Caddies may be an integral part of the medium, as in some DVD-RAM discs, or separately attached. Examples Caddies date at least to the Capacitance Electronic Disc, which used a caddy from 1981 to protect the grooves of the disc. While caddies have become obsolete, some websites still sell them, although they have become quite expensive. Cartridges In addition to caddies that serve purely a storage purpose, there are also ones that are designed to be loaded directly for data access, usually via a shutter. Some early CD-ROM drives used a mechanism where CDs had to