Patent ID: 7002773

Claim:
A disk drive, comprising: a disk including a first disk surface and a second disk surface; an actuator providing a read-write head assembly communicatively coupled to said first disk surface and a second read-write head assembly communicatively coupled to said second disk surface, said actuator pivotably coupled to a disk base; a spindle motor rigidly coupled to said disk base, said spindle motor provided to rotate said disks about an axis of rotation at an operating rotational velocity; said disk base includes a first dampening surface separated from said first disk surface by essentially a first gap for at least 175 degrees with respect to said axis of rotation of said disks and for at least 16 millimeters of radial width with respect to said axis of rotation of said disks; a disk cover including a second dampening surface separated from said second disk surface by essentially a second gap for at least 175 degrees with respect to said axis of rotation of said disks and for at least 16 millimeters of radial width with respect to said axis of rotation of said disks, wherein each member of a gap collection comprising said first gap and said second gap is at most a fixed distance; a dampening mechanism comprising said first dampening surface and said second dampening surface; and said disk cover attached to said disk base forming an enclosure containing said spindle motor, said disk, said actuator, and said dampening mechanism; wherein said dampening mechanism includes said dampening mechanism reducing aerodynamic forces acting upon said first disk surface and said second disk surface to stabilize said disk surfaces as said first and said second disk surfaces rotate at said disk operating rotational velocity; and said dampening mechanism reducing aerodynamic forces acting upon said actuator as said first and said second disk surfaces rotate at said disk operating rotational velocity; wherein said fixed distance is at most 1 millimeter; wherein said disk has a height of at most 13 millimeters; wherein said disk drive is a hard disk drive; wherein said first dampening surface is connected and contains at least one perforation; and wherein a diameter of said perforation is between one millimeter and six millimeters.