International Business Machines Corporation

Thomas R Fournier

Daniel O Castrodale

Michael N Zell

Wallace E Beuch

Jonathan L Fasig

Curtis A Larson

Kevin P O'Marro

A computer system having a removable hard disk drive is disclosed. The interposer card is modified to receive a docking bay which receives a cartridge which contains a hard disk drive. The docking bay includes the male portion of a zero insertion force connector and a first circuit board to which connects to the interposer card of the computer. The first circuit board also includes circuit paths between the male portion of the zero insertion force connector and the end which connects to the interposer card of the computer. The first circuit card also includes circuitry which allows 'hot plugging' of the hard disk drive to the bus of the computer and which also acts as a lockout to prevent writing to the removable hard disk drive until after the computer system has been rebooted. The docking bay also includes a spring mechanism for ejecting the cartridge. A finger lever holds the cartridge in place and can be lifted to eject the cartridge. A hard disk drive is placed within a cartridge which includes a second printed circuit board. Attached to the second printed circuit board is the female portion of a zero insertion force connector.

Removable hard disk drive system with circuit for hot insertion and

A tray for a machine operative to sequentially pull jacketed flexible magnetic disks (which may be termed 'diskettes') into a data transferring position in the machine from the tray. The tray has a few open top store grooves for a few diskettes desired to be individually used and has a magazine detachably mounted thereon which has a bottom and a top with a greater number of diskette store grooves in the bottom and top for a group of diskettes to be used together. The machine is operative to partially withdraw and to return to original positions diskettes from the open top store grooves or from the grooves in the magazine.

Tray for magnetic disk drive machine

A machine operative to sequentially pull jacketed flexible magnetic disks (which may be termed 'diskettes') into a data transferring position in the machine directly from a carriage or from a magazine carried by the carriage and to return the diskette back into the carriage or magazine. The jackets of the diskettes are square; and the carriage and the magazine are provided with flat sided, flat bottomed store grooves for holding such diskettes. The machine is likewise provided with a diskette receptor groove having flat sides and a flat bottom and holding a diskette in its data transferring position in the machine. The flat sided and bottomed grooves cooperating with the square diskette jackets prevent a binding or jamming of the diskettes as they are moved from the carriage or magazine into the machine and back again, and the movement of a diskette is only partially out of a store groove in the carriage or magazine so that the diskette is certain to be moved completely back into its original store groove in the carriage or magazine after a data transfer has taken place and so that the machine is shortened to this extent. The carriage has a few store grooves for a few diskettes desired to be individually used, and the magazine has a greater number of diskette store grooves for a group of diskettes desired to be used together.

Drive machine moving magnetic disks only partially therein for data

A machine operative to sequentially pull jacketed flexible magnetic disk units (which may be termed 'diskettes') into a data transferring position, close a collet on a disk driving spindle for clamping the disk onto the spindle for drivingly rotating the disk from the spindle and move magnetic heads into contact with the disk for a data transferring action. The machine includes a clothespin like picker or gripping device reciprocative so as to move into embracing relationship with the diskette and to then pull the diskette into data transferring position. The diskettes are contained in a magazine which is translatable transversely with respect to the path of travel of the picker device so that the picker device may be operative to grip any one of the series of diskettes, depending on the translated position of the magazine. The picker device is driven from an electrical stepping motor driving a pulley which in turn drives a belt operatively connected with the picker device, and the pulley carries a pair of cams one of which is effective on a swing arm for moving the collet into engagement with the driving spindle and the other of which is effective on a swing arm for causing engagement of the magnetic heads with the disk for a data transferring action.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Thomas R Fournier