The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 22, 1991
Filed:
Oct. 06, 1986
Robin J Freeze, Milpitas, CA (US);
Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY (US);
Abstract
A low-wear floppy disk drive system includes an anti-wear controller which randomly selects successive disk tracks to which it directs the disk read/write head whenever the disk drive is idle, so as to more evenly distribute head contact wear across lesser used portions of the disk, and thus increase disk life. The anti-wear controller does not intercede until after the disk drive has been idle for a minimum idle time (e.g. 15 seconds). After a maximum number (e.g., 6) of such idle periods--after the head has been moved a maximum number of times to randomly selected tracks--the anti-wear controller stops the disk rotation, thus stopping head contact wear on the disk altogether. The system excludes the most frequently used disk tracks--i.e., those tracks storing the disk file allocation tables--from the random selection. The system further excludes the innermost tracks on the disk--where the media is less compliant and disk wear more rapid--from the random selection.