Abstract: An information storage device is disclosed (such as a disk drive) comprising an interface for connecting to a host through a cable, and control circuitry for communicating with the host over the cable by executing a communication process. The communication processes comprises the steps of transmitting a communication request to the host over the cable and waiting to receive a response from the host over the cable. A cable loss event is logged if the host fails to respond after executing the communication process at least twice. Performing the communication process multiple times before logging a cable loss event helps ensure a communication failure is actually due to a faulty cable connection.

Abstract: A method of binning disk drives by evaluating quality metrics prior to a final quality audit is disclosed. A number of disk drives are assembled, and a plurality of quality metrics are generated for each disk drive representing a plurality of operating characteristics. The quality metrics for each disk drive are evaluated for binning the disk drives into a plurality of lots including a first lot and a second lot. A final quality audit (FQA) is performed by executing a number of write and read operations for a plurality of the disk drives in each lot and classifying each disk drive as passing or failing the FQA. If the number of disk drives that fail the FQA out of the first lot falls below a first threshold, the first lot is classified as acceptable for a first tier customer. If the number of disk drives that fail the FQA out of the second lot falls below a second threshold, the second lot is classified as acceptable for a second tier customer.