Patent ID: 8095234

Claim:
A method of transferring disk drives within a disk drive system, the method comprising: performing one or more of first operations or second operations; wherein the first operations comprise: loading, into the disk drive system at a first location, the disk drives; actuating an automated transporter to retrieve a plurality of the disk drives; actuating the automated transporter to deliver a first disk drive from the plurality of the disk drives to a first disk drive slot in a second location; actuating the automated transporter to insert the first disk drive in the first disk drive slot; and unloading one or more of the disk drives from the disk drive system; wherein the second operations comprise: loading a disk drive tote into the disk drive system; actuating the automated transporter to retrieve a second disk drive from a second test slot of the disk drive system; actuating the automated transporter to deliver the second disk drive to the disk drive tote; and unloading, by the disk drive tote, the second disk drive from the disk drive system.