Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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TITLE OF THE INVENTION:
DISK DRIVE LOCK
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:
Field of the invention:
This invention relates to a dev;ce for locking a disk
installed on a disk operating machine.
It is important that the information produced by a com-
puter or any disk operating machine be accessible only to a selected
group of persons and at a specified time. The new device according to
the invention locks a virgin disk or a disk without a classified in-
formation inside a disk operating machine. A covered casing connected
to the disk needs to be broken to give access to the operation of the
disk operating machine.
Prior Art:
Various means have been contemplated to prevent unautho-
rized use of a computer terminal. It has been as elementary as cut-
ting the electrical power supply.
A search of prior patents has revealed V.S. patent No
4,669,281 which discloses an apparatus for protecting the cabling sys-
tem of a computer to limit the access of the computer to only bona Ei-
de users.
SVMMARY OF THE NVENTION:
The disk drive lock according to the invention is used
with a disk operating machine having a slot on one of its face Eor al-
lowing the introduction of a disk and means, adjacent the slot for
locking the disk inside the slot. The disk drive lock comprises a cas-
ing which hold exteriorly a disk. The casing and the disk have a flat
side which are adjacent and about collinear.
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The d;sk is disposed relative to the casing so that when the disk is
engaged in the d;sk operating mach;ne, the side of the casing will
abut aga;nst the face of the machine to obstructingly seal the disk
against external intrusions. The casing has one face which can be
opened and locked and which gives access to a means on the machine
for locking the disk inside the slot.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING:
Figure l is a perspective view of a d;sk drive lock ac-
cord;ng to the invention with a partial perspective view of a compu-
ter,
Figure 2 is a top plan view of the d;sk dr;ve lock with
a disk inserted in a partial view of the computer, and
Figure 3 is a front plan view of the d;sk drive lock
and the computer shown ;n f;gure 2, and
F;gure 4 ;s an enlarged v;ew of a different embod;ment
of the plates for releasably fastening the disk.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:
.
Referr;ng to the drawings, the structure d;sk drive
lock characteriz;ng the present ;nvent;on ;s generally ;nd;cated by
the reference numeral 10.
Disk drive lock 10 compr;ses a parallelepiped shaped
casing 12. The casing 12 has two s;dewalls 14 and 16, a top wall 18,
a bottom wall 20, and a front door 22. The front door 22 p;vots
around hinges 24 according to a rotation ;ndicated ;n figure 1 by ar-
rows 25. To lock the front door 22 in a closed pos;t;on, the user on-
ly needs to ;ntroduce a key ;n a lock 26 which is prov;ded w;th a ro-
tatable tongue 30.
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When the tongue 30 becomes horizontal, it rests against the inner
surface of flanges 28 secured to the sidewall 14 and inhibites the
opening of the front door 22. The casing 12 has no wall opposite the
door 22.
A pair of guiding rails 34 are rigidly attached to the
inner surface of front door 22. The guiding rails 34 support a plate
40 and allows the latter to slide in the direction of the arrows 38.
A stopper plate 42 is rigidly connected to the sliding plate 40. A
screw type device 44 is used to block the sliding movement of the pla-
te 40. In a locked position, the stem of screw type device 44 pushes
against the inner surface of the front door 22 for immobilizing the
sliding plate 40 in the guiding rails 34.
Stopper plate 42 is used to block movement of the disk
locking means 46 usually present on a pPrsonal computers 48 or simi-
lar devices which use information stored on disks such as floppy disk
50. Disk locking means 46 is usually either a lever of the pivot type
as illustrated in the figures or of the push button type. Disk lock-
ing means 46 is mechanically linked to the driving means which rota-
tes the disk 50. Whenever the user either pushes or pivots locking
means 46 in order to secure disk 50 into a slot 52 of a computer 48,
a lever system or other suitable means automatically positions the
driving head which rotates the disk 50 into a driving hole 54. The ro-
tation of disk 50 enables writing and reading oE the data on the disk
through a slot 58 by fixed writing and driving heads. Therefore, when-
ever the user pivots disk locking means 46, it not only inhibits re-
treival of the disk because of partial blockage of slot 52 as illus-
trated in figures 2 and 3, but also because of the presence of the
driving head in driving hole 54.
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According to the invention, the Eloppy disk 50 is tightly linked to
sidewalls 14 and 16 of parallelepid casing 12 by fastening plates 56.
OPERATION OF THE INVENTION:
The main object of this invention is to prevent the use
of the computer 48 by selectively limitting access to the disk lock-
ing means 46. When the disk 50 which carries no privileged informa-
tion, is locked in the computer 48. Since edges 60 of parallelepiped
casing 12 forming the contour of the open wall, are designed to fit
snugly on the front surface 62 of the personal computer 48 either di-
rectly outside or inside the rectangle defined by a recess 64. Once
door 22 is locked, access to the disk locking means 46 is virtually
impossible without damaging either casing 12 or internal components
of computer 48. lndeed, when the disk drive lock 10 is in place, cas-
ing 12 is rigidly attached to floppy disk 50 by fastening plates 56
while floppy disk 50 is itself secured to personal computer 48 by
both disk locking means 46 and the driving head which is located insi-
de driving hole 54. An unauthorized person wanting to remove disk dri-
ve lock 10 by simply pulling on it with Eorce would thereEore damage
one of the above mentioned attachment links either between casing 12
and floppy disk 50 or between floppy disk 50 and personal computer
48. Even though edges 60 are designed to abut snugly against colli-
near surface 62, one could also try to remove disk drive lock 10 by
sliding a thin rigid strip or other similar means between edges 60
and surface 62 in order to unlock disk locking means 46. However, if
stopper plate 42 i8 adequatly positioned, this operation rema:ins vir-
tually impossible without damag;ng either casing 12 or stopper plate
42.
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Disk locking means 10 therefore provides a physical barrier which
must be altered or damaged by any unauthorized individual trying to
illicitly access the protected disk drive. The unauthor;zed indivi-
dual therefore becomes liable to more severe legal actions under most
legislations than if the disk drive had only been protected by war-
ning signals.
Prior to the first use, stopper plate 42 must be adjus-
ted by sliding the plate 40 so that when front door 22 is closed,
stopper plate 42 rests aginst disk locking means 46 as illustrated in
figures 2 and 3. When a push button type disk locking means 46 is
used instead of a pivot type, stopper plate 42 can be adjusted to
rest over and against the depressed button. Once the initial adjust-
ment is made, the sliding plate 40 is locked in place by screw type
device 44 so that Eurther sliding adjustment is only needed if disk
lock device lO is used on a different model of personal computer 4~.
Disk drive lock device lO is therefore extremely simple to use since
only two additional steps other than the usual steps associated with
positionning of the disk for reading and writting operations are nee-
ded, namely pivoting of front door 22, and locking of pivotal lock
26. It should be obvious that the door 22 can be locked on the casing
12 by a variety of locking means. Limiting access to disk locking
means 46 and therefore preventing unvolontary retraction of disk 50
from slot 52 can be especially use~ull in at least two given instan-
ces. The first of these instance is when the owner of a personal com-
puter has stored information on what is commonly referred to as a
hard disk and wants to limit access to that information. To become
operational, most personal computers need to be started up by an
operation commonly referred to as "booting".
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To "boot" the system, the user must insert a disk commonly referred
to as the DOS or ~isk Operating System disk in a given slot and then
turn on the computer by means of a given switch. In the default mode,
most personal computers will look for the information contained on
the DOS disk by reading the disk inserted in the drive commonl-y refer-
red to as the "A" drive which corresponds to a given slot such as
slot 52. If the default "booting" drive is not the "A" drive, the
user can usually perform a series of operation which can transform
drive "A" into the booting drive. Previously, to have access to the
data stored on the hard disk, a given individual could simply start
up the system and search the hard disk.
If disk lock 10 is installed with a disk other than the
DOS disk, the personal computer cannot be started and therefore infor-
mation stored on the hard disk is inaccessible.
The second instance whereby disk lock device lO is espe-
cially usefull is for situations where floppy disk containing valu-
able data must be left unattended in a computer. Disk lock device lO
can then prevent the theft of the floppy disk.
Disk 50 may be a virgin disk, i.e. without information
or date if it is only intended to prevent access to the computer. How-
ever, one can leave an unconfidential message on disk 50, such as
"back after lunch" which would appear on the computer.
Although disk 50 has been described as tightly linked
to the sidewalls 14 and 16 by fastening plates 56, the disk can be re-
movably fixed because the disk can be sold separately from the casing
12. Any virgin or suitable disk can be used in association with the
casing 12.
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In figures 1 to 3, the disk 50 ;s secured to the casing
12 by fastening plates 56. However, the disk can be removably fixed
to the casing by clipping means. For instance, the plates 56 may be
replaced by a bracket 70 such as shown in figure 4. The bracket 70 is
made of two superposed connected plates 72 and 74. The plate 72 has
an aperture 76 and plate 74 has a recess 76 aligned with each other.
The aperture 76 and the recess 78 are shaped to receive a T-shaped
pin 80. The disk 82 made for such an arrangement has a perforation 84
suitable to receive the pin 80. The disk 82 can be removably locked
in the bracket 70 by inserting the corner of the disk 82 in the bra-
cket 70 and locking it in place with the pin 80. Any disk provided
with a suitable perforation and suitable information can be combined
with the new casing for performing the desired locking operation.
