Disclosed is a disk drive having a linear actuator for carrying read/write heads into engagement with a recording medium. The heads are mounted on a carriage assembly along with a voice coil motor for driving the carriage assembly into and out of engagement of the heads with the medium. The carriage assembly slides linearly on a central guide track. A flexure is provided for the central guide track for linear movement by the carriage assembly so that initial linear movement of the carriage assembly is by flexing the flexure and further, larger linear movement of the carriage assembly is by sliding along the guide track. In one form of the invention the central guide track is suspended at the front end by a flexure and at the rear end by a bearing. In another form of the invention the central guide track is suspended at each end by a flexure. The flexure has an attaching mechanism for attaching the flexure to the central guide track so that the flexure pivots freely on the central guide track. This eliminates the likelihood of bending of the central guide track and improves the ability of the system to reject 1f and 2f run out and therefore, track following.
This application is a continuing in part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/866,168, filed May 30, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,445 and hereby claims the benefit of the filing data of that application and incorporates that application by reference.
A flexible disk drive comprises a magnetic head, a head carriage, and a guide rod, attached by a metal fitting on a main frame of the flexible disk drive, guiding the head carriage in the tracking direction. The metal fitting has a longitudinal member which has first and second ends and is provided with a protruding/caved portion and a hole portion at opposite ends, respectively. The protruding/caved portion is formed on the first end of the metal fitting and engaged with a caved/protruding portion formed on the main frame. The hole portion is formed on the second end of the metal fitting and a male screw is screwed into a female screw formed on the main frame through the hole portion.
