Seagate Technology Incorporated

Other

Syquest Technology, Inc.

James Arthur Herbst

Thomas Richardson Lenny

Mansur B Kiadeh

Chih-Hsiung Chang

Steven Scott Williams

Jonathan Williams Haines

Robert William Dixon

Kai C Sun

Eric N Heiney

Jonathan William Haines

Carol Michiko Baum

Steve R Martin

Bradley Ronald Brookes

Kai C K Sun

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method of counteracting gas ingestion in a hydrodynamic bearing of a spindle motor in a data storage device comprises waiting for activity of a host connected with the data storage device to become idle. When the activity of the host becomes idle, a determination is made whether to release gas from a fluid of the hydrodynamic bearing of the spindle motor. Responsive to determining to release gas from a fluid of the hydrodynamic bearing of the spindle motor a motor spin down routine for the spindle motor is performed.

Counteracting gas ingestion in a hydrodynamic bearing spindle motor

Systems and methods in a disc drive improve data transfer performance by interrupting disc write operations to service read commands.

Interrupting disc write operations to service read commands

In a data storage device, a system of method of optimizing cache management. A method includes selecting a set of cache management algorithms associated with a predetermined pattern in a sequence of commands. Statistics based on a sequence of commands are gathered and a pattern is detected from the statistics. The pattern is associated with predetermined known patterns to identify a set of cache management algorithms that are optimized for the known pattern. A system includes usage statistics that are correlated among a set of known usage patterns. A switch chooses the set of cache management algorithms associated with the known pattern that most closely matches the usage statistics.

Method and system for cache management algorithm selection

A host-transparent, performance-unaffecting, self-contained write authentication test (SWAT) is implemented in a disc drive to utilize periods of disc drive inactivity to self-verify data written to a disc in a disc drive and further record in the Self Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Technology (SMART) feature of the disc drive, various resultant metrics characterizing the operation of the disc drive during the data authentication. The disc drive maintains a list of recently received write commands, and after a period of inactivity from the host, optionally sorts and parses the list of recent write commands, executes reads from the disc of the data recently written, and records operational parameters characterizing failed data verification during the reads in the SMART feature.

Self-contained disc drive write authentication test

An apparatus, modules, means, and computer readable media for and a method of logging critical events to a critical event log storage area on a disc in a disc drive are disclosed. The disc drive having a data storage disc is operably connected to a host computer. The data communication between the host computer and the disc drive is established via a disc drive interface. The disc drive interface may be an ATA disc drive interface. A power-on operational status of the disc drive with the host computer is determined. Then a critical event is determined without a host computer intervention. A set of critical events are predefined and stored in the firmware of the disc drive. The critical event can be monitored and logged either during an on-line data collection mode or an off-line data collection mode. During the off-line data collection mode, the firmware performs off-line scan of the disc drive in the background. The determined critical event is logged to the critical event log by reading the critical event log from the critical event log storage area on the disc; appending the determined critical event to the critical event log; and storing the appended critical event log to the critical event log storage area on the disc.

Critical event log for a disc drive

A higher-capacity disk drive system and a higher-capacity removable disk cartridge adapted for downward compatibility with older, lower-capacity disk drive systems, wherein a unique control information format is stored on higher-capacity removable disk cartridges to distinguish them from older, lower-capacity removable disk cartridges and thereby to facilitate cartridge capacity recognition by the higher-capacity disk drive system. Upon recognizing the capacity of an inserted removable disk cartridge, the higher-capacity disk drive system can read and write data to the removable disk cartridge such that data which it stores on a lower-capacity removable disk cartridge may be read by lower-capacity disk drive systems.

Disk drive system and control circuitry adapted for downward compatibility

A disk drive system having downward compatibility includes a read/write head and a feedback servo controller for reading and writing information to and from a removable disk cartridge. When writing information to the data tracks of magnetic medium of a lower-capacity disk cartridge, in which the data tracks are substantially wider than the width of the read/write head, the read/write head is operated in an erase mode for several resolutions prior to writing the data. The read/write head is first shifted off track center by a small DC offset, then operated in an erase mode while being guided in a repeating oscillating pattern under closed loop servo control. The read/write head is then shifted off track center in the other direction, then again operated in an erase mode while being guided in a repeating oscillating pattern under closed loop servo control. A higher capacity disk drive system can thereby read and write data to the removable disk cartridge such that data which it stores on a lower-capacity removable disk cartridge may be read by lower-capacity disk drive systems without sideband interference.

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Longmont, CO, United States of America

James Arthur Herbst