Abstract: A method formats disc surfaces in a disc drive for storage of data in a group of tracks on the disc surfaces. The disc drive performs seek operations to seek among cylinders on the disc surfaces as a function of time according to an actual seek profile. An approximation of the actual seek profile is determined such that the actual seek profile falls within the approximation. The disc surfaces are formatted according to the approximation of the actual seek profile.

Abstract: A method formats disc surfaces in a disc drive for storage of data in a group of tracks on the disc surfaces. The disc drive performs seek operations to seek among cylinders on the disc surfaces as a function of time according to an actual seek profile. An approximation of the actual seek profile is determined such that the actual seek profile falls within the approximation. The disc surfaces are formatted according to the approximation of the actual seek profile.

Abstract: A magnetic disc storage system includes a magnetic storage disc and a transducing head. During periods of inactivity the transducing head is dithered whereby the head is moved to tracks on the disc according to a number of criteria. The criteria includes wear reduction, power reduction, avoidance of textured zones, head cycling, increased fly height and clearing of debris carried on the head.

Abstract: A method for assuring consistency between data and parity in a disk array system following a reset or a power failure condition which interrupts the execution of write I/O operations. The method includes the steps of: examining drive activities to identify unfinished write I/O operations due to an interrupt condition; logging information necessary to identify the unfinished operations and the array redundancy groups associated with the unfinished operations into a non-volatile memory; and checking for log entries in the non-volatile memory during a disk array subsystem initialization or the restoration of power. For each unfinished operation identified in the log, the method further includes the steps of: performing a bit-wise exclusive-OR of corresponding portions of the data stored within the associated redundancy group to calculate parity consistent therewith; and writing the calculated parity to the parity storage areas within the associated redundancy group.