Patent ID: 7042717

Claim:
A storage system with multiple disk drives comprising: a rectangular prismatic enclosure with six substantially planar sides having at least two largest sides and a primary access side and an input/output side, said primary access side not being one of said at least two largest sides and said input/output side being opposite of and substantially parallel to said primary access side; a single backplane oriented substantially parallel to said at least one of said two largest sides of said enclosure, said single backplane having a plurality of disk drive interface connectors and at least one interface connector; a plurality of disk drives having an elongated rectangular prismatic shape comprising two large faces and two small faces, one of said two large faces oriented perpendicularly to said single backplane, each of said disk drives electrically connected to said disk drive interface connectors of said single backplane; and said single backplane with said plurality of disk drives slidingly engaged into said enclosure and adapted to be removed from said enclosure through said access side as a single unit.