Seagate Technology Incorporated

Cary Dean Johnson

Scott Douglas Ulrich

Morse E Magnuson

Paul William Burnett

Feng X Li

Todd Phillip Fracek

Gary Gang Jing

Matthew Edward Hastings

Wei-Hua Lin

Peter A Sherrard

In a method for predicting failure of a disc drive during operation of the disc drive, a write fault count is maintained that corresponds to write faults encountered during write operations to a disc of the disc drive. Additionally, a frequency domain representation of a position error signal of a head of the disc drive is obtained. Finally, failure of the disc drive is predicted based on the write fault count and the frequency domain representation of the position error signal. Another aspect of the present invention relates to a disc drive that is capable of performing the above-described method.

Disc drive failure prediction

The invention provides a remotely-operable tester, designed to test multiple disc drives utilizing different interfaces simultaneously. The tester performs tests essentially similar to those performed by the manufacturer, and so is capable of accurately diagnosing disc drive problems without requiring the return of suspected defective disc drives to the manufacturer. Testers are attached to a local computer, which controls operation of the testers and communicates test results via a network connection to one or more other networked computers. The tester is capable of regulating power supplied to the disc drives under test, and of regulating the temperature within the tester. Each bay of the tester may be configured to support a different disc drive interface, and a drive initiator card attached to each bay supports disc drive interface formats needed for the various possible bay configurations.

Hard disc drive verification tester

The present invention provides a portable on-site tester to test a disc drive at a location remote from the disc drive manufacturer. The tester supports multiple disc drive interfaces by supporting multiple drive initiator cards, one of which is selected for use at a time. A tester which controls operation of the tester is attached to a local computer via a tester interface. The proper drive initiator card is selected for connection to the tester interface such that the drive initiator card supports the disc drive interface format of the disc drive to be tested. The tester may be configured to support different disc drive interfaces by connection of various drive initiator cards to the tester. The drive initiator cards are mounted to one or more drive initiator card supports, which are oriented in the tester such that the selected drive initiator card is electrically connected to the tester.

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Savage, MN, United States of America

Cary Dean Johnson