An automated disk drive library has a rack with drawers that are interconnected with a host computer. A drive carrier having a disk drive is mounted in each drawer. The drive carrier has a front bezel that senses whether the disk drive is latched within the drawer and communicates with the computer. The front bezel also has an optical sensor that may be coupled to an optical probe as an auxiliary data interface with computer. The main data interface for the disk drive is provided by a self-healing optical coupler at the back of the carrier and drawer. Power to the disk drive is supplied via a magnetic coupling with split core transformers on the drive carrier and drawer. The disk drive and carrier may be manually or automatically installed into and removed from drawer via a drive mechanism in the drawer.