Patent · US Expired

Magnetic disk drive and method for seek operations with reduced noise

US7271976B2 · kind B2 · utility

10Cited by
5References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 1, 2005
Grant dateSep 18, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 1, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11B5/5547
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention reduce the noise occurring when the lubricating layer on the magnetic disk is smoothed. In one embodiment, a magnetic disk drive has a read/write mode parameter table for generating an electric current to be supplied to a voice coil motor when the magnetic head performs data read/write operations on the magnetic disk. The magnetic disk drive also has a smoothing mode parameter table for generating another electric current to be supplied to the voice coil motor when neither a data read nor a write operation is performed on the magnetic disk. The CPU refers to either the read/write mode parameter table or the smoothing mode parameter table and controls the electric current to be supplied to the voice coil motor. When a lubricating-layer smoothing event occurs, the CPU refers to the smoothing mode parameter table and after generating the associated electric current to be supplied to the voice coil motor, moves the magnetic head to seek between the outermost and innermost tracks on the surface of the magnetic disk to perform a smoothing process for the lubricating layer.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.