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:
May. 31, 2005
Filed:
May. 31, 2002
Donald Ray Gillis, San Jose, CA (US);
Molly Smith, Rochester, MN (US);
Donald Ray Gillis, San Jose, CA (US);
Molly Smith, Rochester, MN (US);
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V., Amsterdam, NL;
Abstract
A method and apparatus for detecting lubricant depletion in a disk drive is provided. Disk operation performance parameters are monitored for each of a plurality of zones on the surface of the disk and stored. Examples of performance parameters include dwell time, flying height changes, and data recovery measurements. The performance parameters are compared against predetermined threshold values. If the performance parameters exceed the predetermined threshold values for any of the zones, a potential lubricant depletion or other general degradation problem is flagged for the corresponding zone. Optionally, when a potential lubricant depletion problem is flagged for a particular zone, corrective action is taken. Examples of corrective action include moving recently accessed data from the flagged zone to a zone not identified as having a lubricant depletion problem, moving older archival data to the flagged zone, and/or removing access to the flagged zone.