Patent ID: 7057851

Claim:
A disc drive, comprising: a housing surrounding a voice coil cavity and a disc cavity; a disc rotatably mounted in the disc cavity, the disc having an outer diameter where the disc rotates to induce an arc airflow portion along a portion of the outer diameter; a shroud that includes a straight wall extending from the outer diameter to the voice coil cavity; an actuator arm in the disc cavity; a notched air dam in the disc cavity upstream of the actuator arm, wherein the air dam includes a ridge with a cut-out notch such that the ridge does not protrude into or impede the airflow generated by the rotating disc; and the airflow including a straight line tangent airflow portion that flows along the straight wall and that extends from the outer diameter to the voice coil cavity, the straight line tangent airflow portion flowing through the cut-out notch and being unimpeded by protrusion of the ridge into the straight line tangent airflow portion.