Patent ID: 7110221

Claim:
A disk drive, comprising: a recording medium rotatably supported for rotation around a spindle rotation axis; a head support arm including a read and/or write head and a tab mounted at one end of said head support arm, a first pivot bearing rotatably supporting said head support arm for rotation around a first rotation axis in a direction parallel to a recording surface of the recording medium, said first pivot bearing being located at a predetermined distance from the spindle rotation axis, a second pivot bearing rotatably supporting said head support arm for rotation around a second rotation axis in a direction perpendicular to the recording surface of said recording medium, the second rotation axis being disposed perpendicular to the first rotation axis; a spring plate arranged to resiliently bias said head support arm toward the recording surface of said recording medium, said spring plate connecting said head support arm and said second pivot bearing; and a ramp configured to retain said tab when said head support arm is at a parking position, said ramp comprising a first stepped side wall arranged to prevent the tab from moving from the parking position toward said recording medium and a maintaining plane arranged to maintain said tab at the parking position; wherein said head support arm and said ramp are arranged so that, in order to cause said tab to climb over said first stepped side wall and to cause said head support arm to rotatably move from the parking position to a read and/or write position on the recording medium, a driving force provided to said head support arm shall be provided in the direction perpendicular to the recording surface of the recording medium and in the direction parallel to the recording surface of the recording medium.