Hard disk drive breather filter enabling sorbent replacement

A sorbent breather filter configured for installation within a hard disk drive, and sorbent loading/unloading while within the hard disk drive and outside of a clean-room environment, the sorbent breather filter comprising:

• a first chamber configured for housing a first sorbent and environmentally coupled with an external environment via at least a first orifice and a second orifice;
• a first sorbent in the first chamber;
• a second chamber adjacent to the first chamber and configured for housing a second sorbent;
• and
• a second sorbent in the second chamber;
• wherein:
• the first orifice of the breather filter is configured as a through-hole between the external environment and the first chamber and is positioned for alignment with a hard disk drive breather hole such that the first sorbent can be loaded into the first chamber via the first orifice while the sorbent breather filter is installed within the hard disk drive;
• and
• the second orifice of the breather filter is configured as a slitted-hole between the external environment and the first chamber such that the first sorbent cannot move from the first chamber to the external environment via the second orifice while air flows out from the sorbent breather filter via the second orifice while loading the first sorbent into the first chamber while the sorbent breather filter is installed within the hard disk drive.

A method of refilling a sorbent breather filter positioned inside a hard disk drive (HDD), the method comprising:

• for a sorbent breather filter comprising a first compartment environmentally coupled with an environment external to the HDD via a through-hole in a container of the breather filter and a grate-covered orifice in the container of the breather filter, a first means for adsorbing in the first compartment, a second compartment adjacent to the first compartment and environmentally coupled with an internal environment of the HDD, and a sorbent in the second compartment:
• applying a suction force to the through-hole via a collinear breather hole of an enclosure cover of the HDD, from the environment external to the HDD, to remove the first means for adsorbing from the first compartment;
• and
• injecting another unit of first means for adsorbing into the first compartment via the through-hole, such that the grate-covered orifice prohibits any of the other unit of first means for adsorbing from moving from the first compartment to the environment external to the HDD via the grate-covered orifice.