Data storage cartridge and drive with an interlock
AssigneeIomega Corporation
InventorGreg Nguyen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cartridge for a disk drive has a rigid shell with a keying ear and two keying grooves. The keying ear is located on the rounded front at one corner between the top and bottom surfaces of the cartridge shell. The ear cooperates with a projection located in the drive along the drive receiving slot. The keying grooves are along the top and bottom edges of one side of the cartridge. These groves mate with projections on the cartridge receiving slot in the drive. One of the grooves extends deeper into one planar surface of the cartridge than the other grove. Both keys prevent insertion of the cartridge with any other orientation of the cartridge than the correct orientation.
Claims20
A cartridge for a drive having an interlock and read/write heads which record data in said cartridge comprising:
- a shell having a front, a back, and two sides between substantially flat, planar surfaces;
- a recording medium in said shell;
- an opening in said shell for access by said read/write heads to said recording medium;
- and
- a keying ear on said front of said cartridge between said planar surfaces at one side of said shell, said keying ear preventing operation of a drive which does not have the proper interlock to cooperate with said keying ear.
The combination of a cartridge and a drive for reading/recording data on said cartridge,
- said drive comprising:
- read/write heads for reading and recording data on said cartridge;
- and
- interlocking means for locking said drive normally and for unlocking said drive only when the proper cartridge is inserted;
- said cartridge comprising:
- a shell having a front, a back, and two sides between substantially flat, planar surfaces;
- a recording medium in said shell;
- an opening in said shell for access by said read/write heads to said recording medium;
- and
- a keying ear on one corner of the front of cartridge between said planar surfaces at a side of said shell, said keying ear preventing operation by a drive which does not have the proper interlocking means to cooperate with said keying ear.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.