Write pointer management for a disk drive

US9383923B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Western Digital Technologies, Inc. · US

Inventors

• James N. Malina · Irvine, US
• Joo Peng Teh · Kuala Lumpur, MY
• Sang Huynh · Corona, US
• Carl E. Barlow · Lake Forest, US
• Robert M. Fallone · Lake Forest, US
• William B. Boyle · Lake Forest, US
• Glenn Cheng · Kuala Lumpur, MY
• Kuang Hwa Teo · Puchong, MY
• Peng Liang · Mississauga, CA
• Daniel D. Reno · معلمی نژاد, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 26, 2012
• Grant date: Jul 5, 2016
• Expiry date: Sep 17, 2034

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G11B20/1217
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Write pointer management for a disk drive including a disk having a plurality of sectors and a non-volatile memory (NVM) for storing data. Data is sequentially written sector by sector on the disk. The data written in a sector includes a write status indicator indicating that data has been written in the sector. A write pointer is stored on the disk or the NVM as a check-pointed write pointer. The write pointer corresponds to a current sector for writing data on the disk. During a write pointer recovery process, the check-pointed write pointer is retrieved, and at least one write status indicator is scanned in a range of sectors from the sector corresponding to the retrieved check-pointed write pointer and a last sector to identify the current sector for writing data. The write pointer is set to correspond to the identified current sector.