I don't understand the downvotes. The gp probably asked why not just zero-out the bytes. Sure, there's the firmware modification issue. But what I was responding to is why replace. This is the easiest option.
Post says "buy the laptop with the cheapest drive; then replace that cheapest drive with an SSD".
You said "the cheapest drive is not an SSD".
The point is to minimise the money spent on the drive supplied with the machine because you're not going to use that drive, you're going to throw it away.
