Abstract: Techniques are provided for identifying the servo sectors in a track on a data storage device. A data storage device identifies the servo sectors in a track by reading distributed index bits from multiple servo sectors in a track. The data storage device analyzes only one index bit from each servo sector to identify the index of a track. In some embodiments, the index of a track can be identified after examining the index bits stored in a particular number of consecutive servo sectors, even in the presence of errors. The index bits in each track can have an error tolerance with a minimum Hamming distance greater than one. In other embodiments, a data storage device compares a sliding window of the index bits read from the servo sectors to all possible N-bit vectors that exist within a pattern of the index bits stored on a track.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a magnetic disk drive system in which the write element leads the read element in the tangential direction of rotation of the magnetic disk. In addition, the servo sector information is preferably arranged such that information that is not needed for write operation is placed at the end of the servo sector. In this way, the servo read operation can be terminated sooner and the write operation can initiate sooner after going over the servo sector. The write element in a write operation writes data to the data sector of a track until an end of the data sector before reaching a front end of a servo sector following the end of the data sector. The read element reads information in the servo sector needed for the write operation. The write element starts writing data in a next data sector following the servo sector after the write element reaches the next data sector and after the read element has read all information in the servo sector needed for the write operation.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for identifying the servo sectors in a track on a data storage device. A data storage device identifies the servo sectors in a track by reading distributed index bits from multiple servo sectors in a track. The data storage device analyzes only one index bit from each servo sector to identify the index of a track. In some embodiments, the index of a track can be identified after examining the index bits stored in a particular number of consecutive servo sectors, even in the presence of errors. The index bits in each track can have an error tolerance with a minimum Hamming distance greater than one. In other embodiments, a data storage device compares a sliding window of the index bits read from the servo sectors to all possible N-bit vectors that exist within a pattern of the index bits stored on a track.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a magnetic disk drive system in which the write element leads the read element in the tangential direction of rotation of the magnetic disk. In addition, the servo sector information is preferably arranged such that information that is not needed for write operation is placed at the end of the servo sector. In this way, the servo read operation can be terminated sooner and the write operation can initiate sooner after going over the servo sector. The write element in a write operation writes data to the data sector of a track until an end of the data sector before reaching a front end of a servo sector following the end of the data sector. The read element reads information in the servo sector needed for the write operation. The write element starts writing data in a next data sector following the servo sector after the write element reaches the next data sector and after the read element has read all information in the servo sector needed for the write operation.

Abstract: During normal operation of a hard disk drive, control logic controls a plurality of switching elements to provide electrical power to a spindle motor and head motor of the disk drive from a voltage source coupled to first and second voltage supply nodes (e.g., Vcc and ground), the spindle motor has a set of motor windings to which the electric power is applied to rotate the spindle motor, and the control logic is configured to enter a regenerative braking state during normal operation where the switching elements are controlled to isolate the spindle motor from the first voltage supply node and cause regenerative braking of the spindle motor so that kinetic energy due to rotation of the spindle motor is converted to electrical power that is supplied to the head motor by virtue of inductance of one or more motor windings in the set.

Abstract: During normal operation of a hard disk drive, control logic controls a plurality of switching elements to provide electrical power to a spindle motor and head motor of the disk drive from a voltage source coupled to first and second voltage supply nodes (e.g., Vcc and ground), the spindle motor has a set of motor windings to which the electric power is applied to rotate the spindle motor, and the control logic is configured to enter a regenerative braking state during normal operation where the switching elements are controlled to isolate the spindle motor from the first voltage supply node and cause regenerative braking of the spindle motor so that kinetic energy due to rotation of the spindle motor is converted to electrical power that is supplied to the head motor by virtue of inductance of one or more motor windings in the set.

Abstract: A disk drive manufacturing method calibrates the stitching gain of a position error signal (PES) by sampling servo information from a quadrature servo pattern while the head is maintained at the quarter-track positions and then calculating the kurtosis of the distribution of the PES values calculated from the samples. Because the kurtosis is a measure of the deviation from a normal or Gaussian distribution, the kurtosis of a PES distribution is used to optimize the stitching gain value through iteration until the kurtosis is close to zero, indicating that the PES with the optimal stitching gain values has a near-Gaussian distribution. The stitching gain calibration is performed for all heads and for multiple tracks across the surface of the disk for each head. The resulting values of stitching gain, each associated with a head and track, are stored in the disk drive memory and recalled during operation of the disk drive.

Abstract: A method for operating a disk drive having timing marks (TMs) on the disk that are chosen to reduce the probability of misidentification of a TM in the presence of read errors. The disk drive searches for TMs within a fixed TM search window which extends past the TM on the disk. A TM preferably maximizes the post-shift sliding distance for m post-shifts of the TM pattern, where m corresponds to the TM search window boundary. In this manner, the probability of a misidentification of the TM due to a post-shift having a small distance from the TM pattern is reduced. The TM pattern also provides pre-shift error resistance.

Abstract: A disk drive has timing marks (TMs) on the disk, that are chosen to reduce the probability of misidentification of a TM in the presence of read errors. The disk drive searches for TMs within a fixed TM search window which extends past the TM on the disk. A TM preferably maximizes the post-shift sliding distance for m post-shifts of the TM pattern, where m corresponds to the TM search window boundary. In this manner, the probability of a misidentification of the TM due to a post-shift having a small distance from the TM pattern is reduced. The TM pattern also provides pre-shift error resistance.

Abstract: In a disk drive system, a servo controller is operative to perform a process of inhibiting write operations for writing data to tracks of a disk during a head settling period following a track seek operation. During each of a first plurality of sampling intervals transpiring during a first time period, the servo controller determines a present position value indicative of the position of the head during the present sampling interval, and also determines a predicted position value indicative of the position of the head during a subsequent sampling interval. Also during each of the first plurality of sampling intervals, the servo controller determines: whether the present position value is within a first error margin from the center of a target track; and whether the predicted position value is within the first error margin. If the present position value and the predicted position value are both within the first error margin, the servo controller enables write operations.