Iomega Corporation

Kelly D Wright

Yiping Ma

David E Jones

Allen T Bracken

Mark S Thayne

Marvin R Deforest

Todd R Shelton

James M Bero

Weimin Pan

Mark L Reimann

Lawrence Moon

Jeffery D Penman

Theodore J Smith

Hiromichi Oribe

John A Christiansen

An information storage device ( ) includes a cartridge ( ) removably inserted into a cradle ( ) that has a drive module ( ) releasably coupled to an interface module ( ). A drive electronics circuit ( ) in the drive module is coupled to a hard disk drive mechanism ( ) in the cartridge, and is coupled through a bus switch ( ) and a bus ( ) to a bridge circuit ( ) in the interface module. An auxiliary circuit ( ) in the drive module is coupled to the bus, is controlled by the bridge circuit, operates the bus switch, and handles considerations relating to removability of the cartridge. The interface module is one of several interchangable interface modules which each have a different bridge circuit to interface the bus to a respective different communication protocol.

Method and apparatus for providing extended functionality for a bus

A head loading apparatus and method for a disk drive device adapts the head load characteristics of a disk drive in order to minimize the velocity of the heads during loading of the heads onto the surface of a data storage medium. The apparatus is characterized by attempting to load the heads onto engagement with a medium, determining whether the heads actually load, measuring the head load velocity, and adjusting the load characteristics of the drive based on the measured head load velocity. Preferably, the pulse width of the loading current applied to the actuator of the drive is adaptive, either increasingly or decreasingly, in response to the measured head load velocity. This adaptive soft head load characteristic of the drive allows the head load velocity to be minimizes to a velocity sufficient to move the read-write heads off of a load ramp and onto the surface of a data storage medium without damaging the head, the medium, or both.

System and method for adaptive soft head loading of disk drive head onto disk medium

A system and method for intentionally servowriting tracks having 1F runout on a data storage disk using a servowriter. The center of the servowriter hub is misaligned a predetermined distance with respect to the center of rotation of the servowriter spindle motor. The data storage disk is mounted on the spindle hub and tracks are servowritten on the disk surface. The tracks are misaligned with respect to the center of the servowriter hub to form 1F runout having a 1F peak amplitude and 2F runout having a 2F peak amplitude. The 1F peak amplitude is substantially equal to the predetermined distance, and the ratio of the 1F peak amplitude to 2F peak amplitude is at least about four.

System and method for minimizing write-over encroachment in a disk due to radial sinusoidal runout at the fundamental frequency

A data storage device for receiving a removable disk cartridge includes a slidable platform, a retractable head, and a head retractor. The slidable platform slides between a forward position where the disk cartridge is ejected and a reward position where the disk cartridge is held for data accessing. Thus, when the disk cartridge is ejected, the slidable platform slides forward from the rearward position. As the platform travels forward, the head retractor is caused to drives the retractable heads to their safe park position so as to avoid any damage to the heads.

Head park mechanism in a data storage device for preventing accidental

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Layton, UT, United States of America

Kelly D Wright