Patent ID: 8018687

Claim:
A disk drive comprising: a disk drive base; a spindle motor attached to the disk drive base; at least one disk attached to the spindle motor; an actuator assembly rotatably attached to the disk drive base about an actuator pivot axis, the actuator assembly including at least one read head; a flex cable bracket attached to the disk drive base; and a flex cable having a first end portion fixed to the actuator assembly, a second end portion fixed to the flex cable bracket, and a free portion between the first and second end portions, the free portion joining the second end portion at a flex exit location; wherein the flex cable bracket includes a flex alignment post that protrudes into a corresponding hole in the disk drive base, and a distance between the flex exit location and the actuator pivot axis is at least 4 times greater than a distance between the flex exit location and the flex alignment post; and wherein the disk drive base includes a clocking post, and the flex cable bracket includes a registering surface in contact with the clocking post, the distance between the registering surface and the flex exit location being at least 5 times the distance between the flex exit location and the flex alignment post.