Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Seong Hwon Yu

Sang Hoon Chu

Jun Seok Shim

Soo Il Choi

The present disclosure relates to a system for detecting a plurality of defect types on the surface of a disk in a hard disk drive. In particular, the disclosure relates to utilizing information obtained from a plurality of servo bits to determine if a sector contains a physical defect. Where such a defect is found, the sector's write gate is disabled and its burst signal data is ignored for track following purposes. In addition, large changes in PES are used to identify closure spike defects. Such defects are managed by providing a compensation signal to the read value of the PES to improve track following. Finally, high PES values are used to signal a third defect type where no other signs of defect are present. In such case, the sector is mapped as defective, but the burst signals continue to be used for track following purposes.

Servo defect management scheme in hard disk drives

An apparatus, method and computer program product for a hard disk drive defect detection system. In one embodiment, a method of detecting defects on the surface of a disk having a plurality of tracks is recited. The method comprises reading, one or more times, the servo bits for a plurality of sectors and determining a burst measure for at least one sector, where the burst measure is a function of the burst signals for the sector. This method further comprises determining a reference value, where the reference value is a function of the burst signals of the plurality of sectors, and comparing the burst measure of at least one sector to the reference value to identify a potential defect. In one embodiment, a sector is mapped as defective where its burst measure differs from the reference value by at least 5 percent.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Seong Hwon Yu