Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

International Business Machines Corporation

Reinhard Ferdinand Wolter

Donald Ray Gillis

Norbert A Feliss

Shozo Saegusa

Karl Arthur Flechsig

Kris Victor Schouterden

Mike Suk

Remmelt Pit

Ullal Vasant Nayak

Vedantham Raman

Richard Mark Kroeker

A clamp includes a disk and a clamp engaging the disk, wherein the clamp has protrusions that bite into a surface of the disk. A disk and clamp assembly includes a disk having receiving areas formed therein, and a clamp engaging the disk, where the clamp has protrusions that engage the receiving areas. Another disk and clamp assembly includes a disk having protrusions formed thereon, and a clamp engaging the disk, where the clamp has receiving areas adapted for receiving the protrusions.

Disk and clamp assembly

A composite disk-clamp assembly including a clamp or spacer of a resilient material coupled to a disk by injection molded plastic so that the clamp forms an integral portion of the disk itself.

Disk assembly having integral clamp and/or spacer

A composite ring for coupling a disk to a spindle includes a upper layer constructed of a material having a hardness at least as hard as a primary material of the disk. A lower layer is fixedly coupled to the upper layer and constructed of a material having similar properties to that of the disk, the properties being selected from a group consisting of a coefficient of thermal expansion and Young's modulus.

Composite disk clamp assembly with lower layer fixedly coupled to upper layer of smaller diameter

A magnetic storage system according to one embodiment includes a magnetic disk having a load zone and a data area; at least one head for reading from and writing to the magnetic disk; and a slider for supporting the head. The load zone is created by: creating a load zone marker on the disk, the load zone marker indicating a position of a load zone of the disk; reading the load zone marker for determining a position of the load zone on the disk; and storing the position of the load zone. The head is loaded on the load zone during subsequent load operations. Methods are also presented.

Load/unload systems and methods for maximizing disk writeable area

An assembly for coupling a disk to a spindle includes an annular spacer ring adapted to engage the disk and an annular clamp. The spacer ring is constructed at least in part of a plastic material. The clamp is constructed of a material having a modulus and stiffness greater than that of the spacer ring.

Plastic spacer and disk clamp assembly

A magnetic brake to prevent rotation of the spindle motor and disk(s). The magnetic brake includes two magnets, one attached to the spindle, clamp, disk, or motor, and the other magnet is coupled to the drive housing or to a movable member. Before the drive is installed in a computer, storage array, etc., the magnet coupled to the housing is removed externally, or the movable member is moved to free rotation of the spindle motor and disk(s). The movable member can also be caused to move automatically when a cable is attached to the drive. An alternate embodiment wraps a wire coil around one of the magnets to counter its magnetism upon energization, freeing the spindle motor and disk(s).

Magnetic brake for disk drive

A system and method for loading a head onto a specified load zone of a disk includes reading positional index information for determining a position of a pre-specified load zone of a disk. When to load a head is determined based on the positional index information so that the head will load onto the load zone, the load zone having an arc of less than 360 degrees. The head is loaded from a ramp onto the load zone at the proper time.

Load/unload system and method for maximizing disk writeable area

An assembly for coupling a disk to a spindle includes a lower layer adapted to engage the disk and an upper layer constructed of a material having a stiffness greater than that of the lower layer. The upper and/or lower layer has protrusions extending therefrom for mating with receiving areas of the other layer.

Disk clamp assembly

A magnetic disk having a low surface microwaviness at a scale of about 200 microns and higher, and a high surface roughness at a scale of less than about a length of a pad of a slider for writing to the disk.

Engineered interface for low fly height

A computer system hard disk drive contains magnetic heads for reading data to and writing data from storage media disks. The heads are coupled to an electrical source that thermally excites the heads during non-operation of the disk drive in order to raise the temperature of the heads. The temperature increase induces a mechanism such as a local, low humidity barrier at each of the heads. When the disk drive is stored in harsh environmental atmospheres, such as high temperatures and high humidity, the mechanism or low humidity barrier is sufficient to overcome the ambient conditions and reduce environmental corrosion of the heads.

Environmental corrosion protection for hard disk drive elements by thermal activation

A method and apparatus for providing predictive failure analysis using the resistance of a sensor such as a MR, GMR, spin valve or wear sensor. A baseline measurement of resistance for at least one sensor of a disk drive is obtained, subsequent measurements of resistance for the at least one sensor of a disk drive are periodically obtained and the subsequent measurements and the baseline measurement to identify a detrimental change to the at least one sensor are processed. The processing further includes comparing a subsequent resistance measurement for the at least one sensor to the baseline measurement of resistance for the at least one sensor to detect a head/disk interface problem and flagging the file for corrective action when the head/disk interface problem is detected. Alternatively, the processing further includes determining a change in stripe height based upon the difference between the baseline measurement of resistance and the subsequent measurement of resistance.

Method and apparatus for preventing data loss in disk drives using predictive failure analysis of magnetoresistive head resistance

A method and apparatus for monitoring the quality of the readback signal of data written on a magnetic recording disk in a disk drive and for limiting data loss due to physical damage at a slider/disk interface. The amplitude of a read signal is continuously monitored in the read channel, either by directly measuring the read signal amplitude or by monitoring the amplification level of the automatic gain control (AGC) circuit in the read channel which is inversely proportional to the read signal amplitude. If the amplitude of the monitored read signal decreases below a chosen level, the location of the data on the disk track is flagged as possibly damaged. The data is rewritten at the same location and then reread to see if full recovery of the degraded data is possible. If the amplitude read signal of the rewritten data is greater than a chosen level, the disk track is judged to be usable and normal operation continues. If the amplitude of the rewritten data read signal is less than the chosen level, permanent damage of the location on the data track is assumed and the data is rewritten at a new location on the magnetic recording disk.

Growing community of inventors

Saratoga, CA, United States of America

Reinhard Ferdinand Wolter