Drawer loading removable cartridge disk drive
AssigneeIomega Corporation
InventorsDavid Griffith, David Jones, Allen T. Bracken, Theon Rawlings
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a disk drive the drive motor and actuator are mounted in a drawer which is slidable to an open position in which there is no vertical obstruction over the motor. The removable cartridge can be placed on the motor with the motor extending into the cartridge to engage the hub. A shutter in an edge of the cartridge is moved to an open position when the drawer is closed to provide access for the actuator to move magnetic heads into read/write relationship with the disks. A lock for the shutter maintains it in the closed position when the drawer is open.
Claims12
A disk drive for writing and reading data to and from a magnetic storage disk contained in a cartridge which has a recessed hub for rotating said disk in said cartridge, said disk drive having a cross-section which defines the envelope of said drive, said drive comprising:
- a chassis within said envelope of said drive;
- a drawer slidably mounted in said chassis so that it is movable between a closed position in which said drawer is confined within said envelope and an open position outside said envelope in which said drawer has no vertical obstruction;
- a motor for driving said hub, said motor being mounted in said drawer;
- the arrangement being such that when said drawer is in the open position, the vertical space required for a cartridge to be placed on said drawer with said motor extending into said cartridge to engage said recessed hub is outside said envelope, said cartridge and said motor sharing common vertical space within said envelope when said drawer is in the closed position, whereby the height of said drive is minimized.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.