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:
Sep. 16, 2003
Filed:
Feb. 09, 2000
Wilson Massey Fish, Yukon, OK (US);
David Christopher Pruett, Oklahoma City, OK (US);
Seagate Technology LLC, Scotts Valley, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for improving the operational performance of a disc drive through the identification of vital product information associated with a head-disc assembly (HDA) of the disc drive. The disc drive comprises a printed wiring assembly (PWA) housing control circuitry for the disc drive. The HDA of the disc drive is operably coupled to the printed wiring assembly and includes a rotatable disc to which data are written by a controllably positionable head. A non-volatile memory device is mounted on the HDA and operably coupled to the PWA so that, when the disc drive is initialized, the PWA verifies the configuration of the HDA before proceeding with the initialization of the disc drive, thereby preventing errors and damage to the disc drive as a result of the installation of a new, replacement PWA in the disc drive, or the downloading of new, incorrect firmware to the PWA.