A flexible magnetic recording disc is brought into transducing relation with a recording head by moving a pressure pad against the disc from the side thereof opposite the recording head, and at a point upstream from the latter, in the direction of disc rotation. This resiliently flexes the disc and deviates part of it from its plane of revolution, causing it to partially wrap over the face of the head, in close transducing proximity, without the requirement of a pressure pad on the disc directly opposite the recording head, leaving that area open for other components. In a preferred embodiment, a separate transducing head is used on each side of the flexible disc, in direct alignment with one another, with a similarly-positioned pair of pressure pads disposed upstream, and all are mounted for articulating movement laterally toward and away from the plane of the disc. Means are provided to prevent simultaneous articulation of both such heads toward one another, to preclude crashing the heads against one another through the recording disc disposed therebetween.

A flexible magnetic disk drive system including a read/write head carried by a carriage that is threadably engaged with a lead screw, but with the head carriage being free to pivot a fraction of a turn about the axis of the lead screw to move the head against and away from the disk.

A flexible magnetic recording disc is brought into transducing relation with a recording head by moving a pressure pad against the disc from the side thereof opposite the recording head, and at a point upstream from the latter, in the direction of disc rotation. This resiliently flexes the disc and deviates part of it from its plane of revolution, causing it to partially wrap over the face of the head, in close transducing proximity, without the requirement of a pressure pad on the disc directly opposite the recording head, leaving that area open for other components. In a preferred embodiment, a separate transducing head is used on each side of the flexible disc, in direct alignment with one another, with a similarly-positioned pair of pressure pads disposed upstream, and all are mounted for articulating movement laterally toward and away from the plane of the disc. Means are provided to prevent simultaneous articulation of both such heads toward one another, to preclude crashing the heads against one another through the recording disc disposed therebetween.

A head load/unload mechanism for a rotating magnetic memory, such as a single or double sided floppy disk drive, comprises a lifter arm which is mounted for viscously damped rotation on a control arm for selectively loading and unloading the read-write head or heads of the drive under the control of a snap action solenoid. A pressure pad may be mounted on the control arm for movement into and out of pressure transmitting relationship with a recording medium supporting platen under the control of the solenoid whereby the recording medium is flattened between the pressure and the platen when the head or heads are loaded to transfer data to or from the recording medium.

A read device for reading magnetic data stored in a plane magnetic recording medium comprises a magnetic head for reading magnetic data stored in a rotatable flexible plane magnetic recording medium and a pad pushing a rear surface of the magnetic recording medium to a direction of the magnetic head so as to contact the front surface of the magnetic recording medium with the magnetic head, and means for adjusting a projected distance of the pad to the magnetic recording medium.