Abstract: A miniature removable rigid disk drive and cartridge including a removable, self-contained hard disk storage device. The disk drive includes mechanical and electrical components that act in conjunction with components in the disk cartridge when it is placed within the disk drive. The combination of drive and cartridge function as a complete and separate hard disk storage unit within the computer, but with the disk cartridge readily removable therefrom.The disk drive and disk cartridge act in conjunction to form a complete miniature removable rigid disk drive and cartridge system. Because the disk and heads are mounted on the same base within the disk cartridge, interchangeability problems are eliminated. More specifically, there can be no misalignment of the head and disk because both are implemented within a common device. Additionally, because the disk cartridge is designed to occupy the least possible volume, it is easily transportable.