Data storage device, apparatus and method for using same

A method for generating a portable card for use in a card processing system including said portable card and a data processing station, said method comprising:

• forming a data storage device on a substrate having a generally rectangular shape such that the data storage device includes a hard disk drive recording medium including:
• depositing at least one layer of high density, high coercivity magnetic material on said substrate such that said high density, high coercivity magnetic material includes a plurality of magnetic domains configured to store magnetic signals in a manner adapted to operably interact with said data processing station when the data storage device and the data processing station are moved relative to each other, said plurality of magnetic domains having an areal density of at least 2 megabits per sq. in. and having a storage capacity of more than 500 megabytes;
• and
• depositing a diamond-like hardness, abradeable protective coating on said magnetic material layer, wherein protective coating has at least one layer which includes a magnetically permeable, magnetically saturable material, and
• physically affixing the data storage device on a protective housing of a standard credit card size as specified by ANSI/ISO/IEC 7810 such that said data storage device is movably disposed inside the protective housing, whereby said combined storage data device and said protective housing form said portable card, said protective housing having at least one housing section that is movable relative to the data storage device such that said data storage device is shielded by said at least one housing section when said at least one housing section is in a first configuration, and said data storage device is operably exposed for interaction with the data processing station when said at least one housing section is in a second configuration.

A method for generating a card processing system including a portable card and a stationary data processing station, the method comprising:

• forming said portable card by:
• forming a data storage device on a substrate having a generally rectangular shape such that the data storage device includes a hard disk drive recording medium including:
• depositing at least one layer of high density, high coercivity magnetic material on said substrate such that said high density, high coercivity magnetic material includes a plurality of magnetic domains configured to store magnetic signals, said plurality of magnetic domains having an areal density of between 2 megabits per sq. in. to about 10 gigabits per sq. in. and having a storage capacity of more than 500 megabytes and being adapted to operably interact with said data processing station when the data storage device and the data processing station are moved relative to each other;
• and
• depositing a diamond-like hardness, abradeable protective coating on said magnetic material layer, wherein protective coating has at least one layer which includes a magnetically permeable, magnetically saturable material, and
• physically affixing the data storage device on a protective housing that is sized in compliance with ANSI 7810 such that said data storage device is either rigidly affixed to or movably disposed inside the protective housing, wherein said portable card is formed by said physically affixing said data storage device on said protective housing, said protective housing having at least one housing section that is movable relative to the data storage device such that said data storage device is shielded by said at least one housing section when said at least one housing section is in a first configuration, and said data storage device is operably exposed for interaction with the data processing station when said at least one housing section is in a second configuration;
• and
• providing said data processing station such that a card reader disposed on said data processing station includes a transducer, a mechanism for positioning for moving the data storage device relative to the transducer, and means for operating the transducer to to perform one of encoding signals in the data storage section and reading encoded signals from the data storage section during relative movement of the data storage device relative to the transducer to enable data flow between the data storage device and the transducer.