Floppy disk control unit and apparatus having a floppy disk control unit

An apparatus for controlling functions of a disk drive, said apparatus comprising:

• control means for outputting control information appropriate to each of a plurality of kinds of controls;
• a memory, coupled to the control means, for storing information used to select predetermined kinds of controls from among the plurality of kinds of controls, the control means outputting the control information corresponding to the predetermined kinds of controls which are selected based on the selecting information from the memory;
• a plurality of controlled objects corresponding to the plurality of kinds of controls, said controlled objects being coupled to the control means and controlled by the control means;
• a connection member connected to an external computer, first information from the external computer being transmitted to said memory via said connection member, and the information stored in said memory being read by the external computer via said connection member, said first information including at least information used to control operations of said controlled objects, and including the information used to select predetermined kinds of controls:
• and
• protection means coupled to said connection member and said memory, for authorizing the information by the external computer to the memory and/or the reading of the information by the external computer only when predetermined information is supplied from the external computer to said connection member,
• wherein said protection means does not authorize the writing of the information to the memory and/or the reading of the information from the memory unless the predetermined information is continuously supplied for a predetermined time period.