CA1290451C - Disk drive lock - Google Patents
Disk drive lockInfo
- Publication number
- CA1290451C CA1290451C CA 555676 CA555676A CA1290451C CA 1290451 C CA1290451 C CA 1290451C CA 555676 CA555676 CA 555676 CA 555676 A CA555676 A CA 555676A CA 1290451 C CA1290451 C CA 1290451C
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- disk
- slot
- casing
- drive lock
- locking
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired
Links
Landscapes
- Feeding And Guiding Record Carriers (AREA)
Abstract
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE:
A virgin disk is exteriorly secured across an open wall of a casing. When the disk is inserted in the slot of a computer and locked inside by a lever, the casing prevents access to the lever and to the disk and to the removal of the latter from the computer.
A virgin disk is exteriorly secured across an open wall of a casing. When the disk is inserted in the slot of a computer and locked inside by a lever, the casing prevents access to the lever and to the disk and to the removal of the latter from the computer.
Description
~ ~29~5~1.
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.
4Sl 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.
lZ~
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.
... 4 29~451 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.
... 5 ' .` '; ' :
: ' ' ' ' ' ' ' . .
1~9(~at5~
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".
... 6 ~2~ 51 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.
~29~4~
., 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.
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.
4Sl 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.
lZ~
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.
... 4 29~451 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.
... 5 ' .` '; ' :
: ' ' ' ' ' ' ' . .
1~9(~at5~
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".
... 6 ~2~ 51 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.
~29~4~
., 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.
Claims (8)
1.- A disk drive lock for a disk operating machine hav-ing a slot on one of its faces for introducing a disk adapted to be engaged inside said slot, the said machine also having adjacent said slot means for locking said disk inside said slot, the said disk dri-ve lock comprising an elongated casing having two sidwalls, a front wall having a door adapted to be opened, the said casing being opened on its side opposite said front wall, said opposite side having a con-tour adapted to tightly abut against said face of the disk operating machine around said slot and said means for locking said disk, means on said sidewalls for securely fixing a disk across said opposite si-de and adjacent said contour and means for securely locking said door to prevent access inside said casing through said front wall, whereby when said disk is mounted on said casing and introduced into said slot and locked in said machine, the casing abut securely against said face of the machine to prevent access to said locking means and to said disk.
2.- A disk drive lock as recited in claim 1, wherein said means for securely locking said door comprise a lock fixed on said door and adapted to engage on one of said sidewalls.
3.- A disk drive lock as recited in claim 1, wherein the said means for locking said disk in said slot is a lever rotata-bly mounted adjacent said slot, the said drive lock comprises a bloc-king member mounted inside said door and adapted to be located adja-cent said lever to prevent said lever from being rotated when the door is closed.
4.- A disk drive lock as recited in claim 3, wherein said blocking member is slidingly mounted on said door and means for locking said blocking member.
5.- A disk drive lock as recited in claim 1, wherein the casing has a parallepipedic shape.
6.- A disk drive lock as recited in claim 1, comprising a disk permanently secured to said sidewalls.
7.- A disk drive lock as recited in claim 6, wherein the said disk contain an unconfidential message registered thereon.
8.- A disk drive lock as recited in claim 6, wherein said disk has a flat edge and said contour is contiguous with said flat edge.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 555676 CA1290451C (en) | 1987-12-30 | 1987-12-30 | Disk drive lock |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 555676 CA1290451C (en) | 1987-12-30 | 1987-12-30 | Disk drive lock |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1290451C true CA1290451C (en) | 1991-10-08 |
Family
ID=4137176
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 555676 Expired CA1290451C (en) | 1987-12-30 | 1987-12-30 | Disk drive lock |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1290451C (en) |
-
1987
- 1987-12-30 CA CA 555676 patent/CA1290451C/en not_active Expired
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Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| MKLA | Lapsed |