Conner Peripherals, Inc.

Seagate Technology Incorporated

Storage Technology Corporation

Amcodyne Incorporated

Kurt M Anderson

John P Squires

James H Morehouse

Frank William Bernett

Glade N Bagnell

Charles M Sander

Frederick Mark Stefansky

Walter Wong

Wallis Allen Dague

Steven R Speckmann

Aaron Wilson

A disc drive gas supply system for supplying a gas other than air to an enclosed environment containing a disc includes a source of gas other than air, which can be connected to the enclosed environment. A pressure sensor produces a pressure signal, such as an electrical, pneumatic, or mechanical signal, that is representative of the pressure within the enclosed environment. A control module receives the pressure signal and connects the source of gas other than air to the enclosed environment if the pressure within the enclosed environment is within a predetermined pressure range. When the pressure within the enclosed environment is above the predetermined pressure range, the control module disconnects the source of gas other than air from the enclosed environment. A disc drive shipping and storage package includes a disc drive defining an internal enclosed environment containing a gas other than air. The package also includes a sealed storage container containing the disc drive and defining an external enclosed environment that also contains the gas other than air.

Disc drive gas supply system

A shock protection assembly for a disc drive includes a protective cover mounted as the lowest portion of the disc drive. The disc drive includes a base plate and two mounting rails, wherein a printed circuit board assembly is attached to the base plate between the two mounting rails. The protective cover is mounted to the base plate to cover a majority of the printed circuit board assembly while extending a predetermined distance below the mounting rails to shield the mounting rails and the base plate from contact. The shock protection assembly may further include a shock damper positioned between the protective cover and the printed circuit board assembly.

Disc drive protective cover to improve shock robustness

A method and apparatus for providing a relatively large, multi-chamber fluid buffer between the interior of the drive and the surrounding external environment. The large fluid buffer is provided by a plurality of channels and chambers stamped into the cover of the disk drive, through which channels and chambers fluid must diffuse in order to enter or exit the drive.

Disk drive including multi-stage environmental diffusion buffer

In a disk drive system having two actuators, each said actuator having a plurality of transducers, said system employing a transducer switching procedure for switching between a first presently selected transducer and a second to be selected transducer, an apparatus, associated with the nonpackwriting actuator, for controlling the sensing of an address mark by said second transducer, said apparatus comprising an address mark means for generating an address mark search signal to start an address mark search when an address mark is expected to be read by said first transducers; and an adjusting means connected to said address mark means for altering the time when said address mark means will generate said address mark search signal such that said second transducer will read the next address mark to occur on the track being read by said second transducer after said second transducer is selected.

System for correcting transducer tangential skew in a disk drive system

An apparatus for a disk drive having at least one disk mounted in a housing having a controlled environment defined by the housing. Such a disk drive generally includes, within the controlled environment, one or more transducers for reading information from and writing information to the disk, and at least one actuator for selectively positioning the transducers with respect to the disks. Each actuator includes at least one magnet for providing a magnetic field and an actuator coil, mounted on the actuator, arranged so that a current in said coil creates a force to pivot the actuator. The apparatus comprises a magnet shield encasing each such magnet for preventing matter, generated during the decomposition of said magnet over a period of time, from interfering with the operation of the disk drive.

Magnet shield for disk drive

A multiple actuator disk drive utilizes multiple heads, associated with respective ones of multiple actuators, to read data from and write data to all tracks on the surface of a disk. The positioning of each head by the respective actuator is controlled by embedded servo-information recorded in the data tracks. The data tracks have a density of greater than 2000 tracks per inch. Utilizing two actuators provides access times which are reduced with respect to the access times provided by disk drives having a single actuator and an increased data transfer rate.

Multiple actuator disk drive

A multiple actuator disk drive utilizes multiple heads, associated with respective ones of multiple actuators, to read data from and write data to all tracks on the surface of a disk. The positioning of each head by the respective actuators is controlled by embedded servo-information recorded in the data tracks. The data tracks have a density of greater than 2000 tracks per inch. Utilizing two actuators provides access times which are reduced with respect to the access times provided by disk drives having a single actuator and an increased data transfer rate.

A parking device for parking the actuator and the heads in a disk drive utilizes the magnetic field provided by the magnet in the actuator. A permeable latch return provided in the magnetic field creates an attractive force which biases the parking device to a latched position. A coil, provided on the parking device, passes an electric current in the magnetic field provided by the actuator to create a force which releases the parking device.

Voice coil activated disk drive parking device with magnetic bias

An apparatus is provided for loading a head onto a spinning disk and unloading the head from the spinning disk so that contact between the head and the disk is essentially prevented. The apparatus includes a Whitney-size head joined to the flexure of a Whitney-type suspension arm. A triangular-shaped ramp is fixed to a face of the suspension arm for engagement with a stationary cam. The stationary cam is located along the path of movement of the head, suspension arm and flexure. The contact between the cam and ramp causes movement of the head relative to the disk. In the case of loading the head, this movement results in a desired approach of the head towards the disk and enhances loading of the head onto the disk.

Whitney-type head loading/unloading apparatus

A magnetic disk drive includes a stack of magnetic disks with servo tracks on a surface of a disk which is intermediate the extremes of the stack. A servo head arm assembly has three magnetic read/write heads and a servo head thereon. A multipart magnetic shield between the magnetic read/write heads and the servo head prevents electrical interference between the data signals and the servo signals.

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Louisville, CO, United States of America

Kurt M Anderson