Connector device

A connector device for selectively connecting at lest one of a memory card and a hard disk drive package as a data storage device, comprising:

• a housing having upper and lower housing plates and a pair of opposing side walls defining a storage space of said housing, one end of said housing being open and defining an insertion port for inserting said at least one data storage device into at least a portion of the storage space of said housing;
• a shallow guide member longitudinally extending along the inner side of at least one of the side walls of said housing to define at least upper and lower storage spaces within the storage space of said housing, the storage space of said housing being substantially uninterrupted by said shallow guide member;
• and
• a connector section coupled to the end of said housing opposite the insertion port, said connector section having upper and lower contact arrays disposed respectively in the upper and lower storage spaces of said housing for connecting with storage devices inserted in the respective storage spaces, at least one of said upper and lower contact arrays being adapted to interchangeably connect to both a memory card and a hard disk drive package, whereby said connector device is capable of accepting a memory card in each of the upper and lower storage spaces, or alternatively, a hard disk drive package that may occupy both storage spaces.

A connector device according to claim 19 further comprising:

• a second slide plate coupled to and slidable over the outer surface of the other housing plate and having ejection hooks that extend through the cutouts in said other housing plate to engage with a forward end face of a storage device connected to the contact array closest to said other housing plate;
• a second ejection member slidably mounted on the outer side of the other side wall of said housing and being operative to slide lengthwise of said housing toward and away from said connector section;
• and
• a second pivot lever rotatably mounted on said other housing plate, one end of said second pivot lever being coupled to said second slide plate and the other end of said second pivot lever being coupled to said second ejection member.