Patent ID: 7342746

Claim:
A disk drive comprising: a disk drive base; a spindle motor including a spindle motor hub, a spindle motor shaft and a stator, the spindle motor hub including an upper end and an opposing lower end, the spindle motor hub being rotatably coupled to the disk drive base via the spindle motor shaft for rotating the spindle motor hub about an axis of rotation, the lower end being disposed towards the disk drive base, the stator being attached to the disk drive base adjacent the lower end; a balancing ring attached to the lower end of the spindle motor hub about the spindle motor shaft; and a balancing weight attached to the balancing ring, the balancing weight being attachable to the balancing ring through the disk drive base and with the balancing ring attached to the lower end of the spindle motor hub, wherein the balancing ring is a C-ring and includes opposing ring ends, and wherein the disk drive base includes a ring access opening sized and configured to extend over the ring ends for allowing access to the ring ends through the disk drive base.