Patent ID: 8037487

Claim:
A disk drive to be loaded with a disk cartridge that houses a disk therein, the drive comprising: a cartridge holder for holding the disk cartridge, the holder having a holder opening, through which the disk cartridge is inserted from outside of the drive into the cartridge holder and ejected out of the cartridge holder; a pair of guide walls, which is arranged in the vicinity of the holder opening of the cartridge holder to define disk cartridge inserting and ejecting directions; a disk motor, which has a turntable to mount the disk thereon and which rotates the turntable; a head for reading and/or writing information from/on the disk; a clamper for clamping the disk with respect to the turntable; a clamper holder, which holds the clamper rotatably and which rotates with respect to the cartridge holder, thereby performing a clamper up/down operation such that the clamper is moved up and down between a rest position where the clamper is out of contact with the turntable and a clamp position where the disk gets clamped on the turntable; a traverse base for supporting the head and the disk motor thereon and also supporting the cartridge holder rotatably; a first opening/closing lever, which has a first engaging portion to engage with a portion of the disk cartridge and which turns while the disk cartridge is being inserted or ejected; a second opening/closing lever, which has a second engaging portion to engage with another portion of the disk cartridge and which also turns while the disk cartridge is being inserted or ejected; a first lever biasing spring for biasing the first opening/closing lever; a second lever biasing spring for biasing the second opening/closing lever; and an interlocking mechanism that makes the first and second opening/closing levers rotate in synchronization with the clamp holder, wherein the first and second opening/closing levers turn such that when the disk cartridge starts to be inserted or finishes being ejected, the first and second engaging portions get engaged with the disk cartridge with a narrower gap left between themselves than the gap between the pair of guide walls and that when the disk cartridge gets loaded, the gap between the first and second engaging portions becomes wider than the gap between the pair of guide walls, thereby opening a window in the disk cartridge such that the head can access the disk and the disk motor can mount the disk thereon when the disk cartridge gets loaded and making the clamper holder move the clamper down and clamp the disk with respect to the turntable.