Patent · US Active

Disk drive with adaptive counting of writes to the data tracks for minimizing the effect of adjacent track encroachment

US8014097B1 · kind B1 · utility

32Cited by
5References
13Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateMay 7, 2010
Grant dateSep 6, 2011
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 7, 2030

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11B19/045
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A hard disk drive (HDD) uses adaptive counting of writes to the data tracks to minimize the effect of adjacent track encroachment (ATE). The tracks are grouped into segments and a counter is associated with each segment, but the number of tracks in a segment varies or adapts depending on the number of writes to the segment. When the count for the number of writes to a segment reaches a threshold, the segment is divided into a number of segments with fewer tracks. The original segment no longer exists and does not require memory to store its count. This process continues until a segment reaches a predetermined minimum number of tracks. When the count for the number of writes to a segment with the minimum number of tracks reaches a threshold, all of the tracks in that segment, and tracks radially adjacent to and on both sides of the segment, are read and rewritten.

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