Patent ID: 8050029

Claim:
An apparatus for cooling hard drives in a hard drive array, the hard drive array having a first end, a second end, and a plurality of receptacles, each hard drive of the hard drive array having a predetermined form factor for fitting into a respective receptacle of the plurality of receptacles, the hard drives having data and power connections, the apparatus comprising: a housing having the predetermined form factor so dimensioned as to be received into a given one of the plurality of receptacles of the hard drive array, the housing further having an angled duct to promote continuous airflow in an s-shape pattern from the first end of the hard drive array towards the second end of the hard drive array; and a fan affixed to the angled duct to cool a selected hard drive of the hard drive array in a second one of the plurality of receptacles, wherein the fan causes the continuous airflow on and away from a surface of the selected hard drive and to direct the continuous airflow away from the first end of the hard drive array and towards the second end of the hard drive array.