Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Sang Huynh

Chun Sei Tsai

William Bernard Boyle

Robert Morelli Fallone

Carl E Barlow

Ayberk Ozturk

Kenneth J Smith

Aznizam Abdullah Salehudin

Anthony L Pei

Kai Ling Lee

Billy Rickey

James N Malina

Don Brunnett

Joseph M Viglione

Kent William Gibbons

Kenneth J D'Souza

Daniel D Reno

Peng Lee Liang

Joo Peng Teh

Kuang Hwa Teo

Johnathan C Lloyd

Bret E Cobos

Peter H Dinh

Jahangir John Kasraee

Glenn Cheng

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.

Write pointer management for a disk drive

A data storage device is disclosed comprising a non-volatile memory comprising a plurality of sectors. At least one alignment zone is defined in the non-volatile memory comprising a plurality of chunks including a plurality of data chunks and a plurality of pad chunks, wherein each chunk comprises a plurality of sectors. Each sector is operable to store X host blocks, the alignment zone comprises at least X&#x2212;1 pad chunks, and control circuitry is operable to shift the data chunks of the alignment zone by a number of chunks equal to or less than X&#x2212;1 plus a corresponding offset.

Data storage device shifting data chunks of alignment zone relative to sector boundaries

A data storage device is disclosed comprising a non-volatile memory comprising a plurality of sectors. A partition map is evaluated that identifies a partition accessed through a plurality of logical block addresses (LBAs), where each LBA maps to a fraction of a sector. A partition offset is determined for the partition relative to a boundary of one of the sectors. N write commands are received each having a write offset relative to a corresponding sector. When the write offset for X of the N write commands matches the partition offset, at least part of the partition is moved to align at least part of the partition to a boundary of one of the sectors.

Data storage device aligning partition to boundary of sector when partition offset correlates with offset of write commands

A disk drive to implement write operations requested by a host is disclosed. The disk drive comprises: a disk having a plurality of tracks, wherein each track includes a plurality of physical data sectors; a head actuated over the disk; and control circuitry. The control circuitry is operable to determine if a write request from the host includes logic data that includes unaligned writes, and if so: coalesces nearby writes; performs a group read operation to create a plurality of groups; and performs a write operation to write the logic data to the physical data sectors based upon the plurality of groups, wherein the physical data sectors are written to the disk during a single revolution of the disk.

Disk drive to coalesce unaligned writes in write operations

The application discloses systems that can include a monitoring module that is operative to provide an event indicator of an event occurring on a hard-disk drive. The systems can include a recording module that is operative to create an event record based on a logging instruction to log the event indicator. The systems can include an event linkage module that is operative to link the event record to a hard-disk drive activity indicator. The systems can include an error log formatting module that is operative to format the event record and a hard-disk drive activity indicator into a hard-disk drive error log. The systems can include a configuration module to set configuration flags and/or values. The error log can be stored on various areas of the hard-disk drive. The application also discloses related methods.

Hard-disk drive work load profiling and capturing systems and methods

Grease wear leveling in a disk drive including an actuator for moving a head over a disk as part of a seek operation. A count of seek operations is maintained and when the count of seek operations exceeds a first threshold number, one or more full stroke seek (FSS) operations are performed until a count of the FSS operations performed reaches a predetermined number. The FSS operation includes moving the head through a substantially wide range of motion. For each of the one or more FSS operations performed, the count of FSS operations performed is adjusted based on whether the most recent FSS operation was performed within a time window. The time window is based at least on a number of interval seek operations performed since a previously performed FSS operation.

Grease wear leveling for a disk drive

A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk having a host addressable area and a reserved area, an exception table stored in the reserved area, a head actuated radially over the disk to write data to the disk, and control circuitry coupled to the head. The control circuitry receives a first command from the host to write first host data into a first physical sector on the disk, wherein the first host data comprises an amount of data less than a full storage capacity of the first physical sector. The control circuitry detects an uncorrectable error while reading the first physical sector during read-modify-write operation, and indicates in the exception table that the first physical sector is a partial sector including valid and invalid logical block addresses (LBAs).

Disk drive with partial sector management

A disk drive is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk, a volatile semiconductor memory (VSM), and a command queue. A plurality of write commands received from a host are stored in the command queue, and write data for the write commands is stored in the VSM. A flush time needed to flush the write data from the VSM to the disk is computed, and the write data is flushed from the VSM to a non-volatile memory (NVM) in response to the flush time.

Disk drive flushing write data in response to computed flush time

Systems and methods for performing refresh operations using write/read commands are provided. In one embodiment, a disk drive comprises a disk partitioned into a plurality of refresh zones, a head configured to write data to and read data from the disk, and a controller. The controller is configured to receive an access command, to read data from at least one of the refresh zones using the head in response to the access command, to check a condition of the read data, and to determine whether to refresh the at least one refresh zone based on the condition of the read data, wherein the read data includes data from a portion of the at least one refresh zone not being accessed by the access command.

Refresh operations using write/read commands

A storage device comprising a storage media and a controller is disclosed. The controller is configured to receive access commands from a host, to write data to or read data from the storage media based on the access commands, to detect a trigger event, and, when the trigger event is detected, to throttle back the access commands from the host based on an amount of data in a cache.

Throttled command completion time

A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk comprising a plurality of tracks, and a head actuated over the disk. A plurality of refresh zones are defined, wherein each refresh zone corresponds to a plurality of the tracks. Data is written to a first refresh zone, and a first zone counter is updated for a second refresh zone at a first rate. Data is written to a third refresh zone, and the first zone counter is updated for the second refresh zone at a second rate different than the first rate.

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Yorba Linda, CA, United States of America

Sang Huynh