Patent ID: 6515821
Filing Date: 2003-02-04
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
A floppy disk drive for driving a floppy disk loaded in said floppy disk drive, wherein said floppy disk comprises a magnetic recording medium, said floppy disk drive comprising:a magnetic head that reads/writes data from/to the magnetic recording medium of said floppy disk; a carriage assembly that supports said magnetic head; a stepping motor that linearly drives said carriage assembly; a spindle motor that rotatably drives the magnetic recording medium of said floppy disk; a stepping motor driver that drives said stepping motor; a spindle motor driver that drives said spindle motor; a reading/writing control circuit that controls reading/writing of data from/to said magnetic head; a floppy disk drive controller that controls said stepping motor driver, said spindle motor driver, and said reading/writing control circuit; and a floppy disk drive control part that controls said floppy disk drive controller by supplying to said floppy disk drive controller a step signal for driving said stepping motor; wherein said floppy disk drive controller sends to said floppy disk drive control part a disk presence/absence distinction signal indicating whether or not said floppy disk is present in said floppy disk drive, and said floppy disk drive control part does not supply said step signal to said floppy disk drive controller when the disk presence/absence distinction signal indicates an absence of said floppy disk.