International Business Machines Corporation

Daniel L Good

Hal Hjalmar Ottesen

Richard Greenberg

Peter M Herman

John Beck

Lowell James Berg

Kevin Jack Erickson

Jerome Thomas Coffey

Donald John Wanek

Daniel Robert Stacer

Dana H Brown

William Woodrow Brooks, Jr

Steven Harry Voss

John R Reidenbach

Jerry Lee Neubauer

Jeffrey E Mason

Walter E Zahn

John Charles Jans, Sr

Kenneth William Meyer

A low profile, high capacity, high performance disk drive includes a plurality of disk surfaces mounted in parallel for simultaneous rotation about an axis. Each of a plurality of data transducer heads for reading and/or writing data to the data surfaces is attached to a slider. A stacked arm actuator for moving the data transducer heads in a radial direction across the disk surfaces includes a supporting arm and a suspension load beam attached to the supporting arm. The suspension load beam connects the supporting arm to the slider. The suspension load beam includes a load dimple bearing on the slider and has opposed stiffening flanges extending in a plane adjacent the slider. The actuator includes a stack of 9 head arm suspension assemblies and the stack has a height of 16.634 mm. An interdisk spacing of less than 1.4 mm provides a height dimension of 14.635 for a stack of 8 disks. Shock and electrical isolation is accomplished using four mounting blocks carrying energy absorbing, highly damped, resilient material.

High capacity, high performance low profile disk drive

A secondary data storage system for a host computer system includes a disk drive system having a device controller, at least a first magnetic disk and a read/write magnetic transducer positionable with respect to a recording surface of each magnetic disk. A write operation exposes data on adjacent tracks to potential damage if an off track condition occurs to the transducer during a write. A method for controlling write operations through the device controller provides backup of data in tracks adjacent to a target track for the write operation prior to the write operation occurring. The method detects occurrence of events resulting in an off track condition of the magnetic transducer relative to a target track. Occurrence of such an event triggers a determination of damage to the contents of tracks adjacent to the target track and restoration of those tracks. Write operations to the target track are blocked until shock events discontinue.

System and method for preventing direct access data storage system data

The fly height of read/write heads in multiple disk drives is dynamically adjusted to optimum fly height by a servo loop. The fly height is sensed in real time with a harmonic ratio fly height detector and compared to an optimum or reference fly height. The suspension system of each head is adjusted in accordance with the departure of the fly height of that head from the optimum fly height. The adjustment of the suspension system is accomplished by bonding a piezoelectric film to the flexible suspension arm carrying each head. The fly height is corrected for both radial and circumferential error as the head changes radial and circumferential position relative to the disk surface. The reference fly height, to which each head is moved by the servo loop, may be selectively changed in the fly height servo operation. This can be done to lift the heads away from the disk surface during track seek mode or disk drive sleep mode. The reference fly height can also be changed to lower the heads towards the disk surface during error recovery mode.

Fly height servo control of read/write head suspension

A cartridge filter for an enclosed magnetic disk drive is disclosed which includes a dual media drum type filter element in a recirculating filter assembly that surrounds the breather filter and delivers air from the periphery of the disk stack to the axial entry of the ventilated disk spindle assembly. The cartridge provides an extended media surface within a compact space for frequent cycling of the enclosed air volume through the filter.

Disk drive air filter assembly

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Daniel L Good