Abstract: A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk having a plurality of tracks, a head actuated over the disk, and control circuitry for servicing an access command received from a host, wherein the access command identifies at least one of the tracks. The control circuitry identifies a band of tracks associated with the access command, maintains a counter for tracking an amount of time the head is within the band of tracks, and moves the head out of the band of tracks in response to the counter to facilitate wear prevention.

Abstract: A disk drive is disclosed wherein if multiple retries beyond a threshold are required to recover a data sector during a normal read operation, the data sector is added to a marginal sector list. During an off-line scan, the data sectors in the marginal sector list are verified. If the verification of a data sector fails, the data sector is relocated.

Abstract: A disk drive is disclosed comprising a microprocessor, a non-volatile serial semiconductor memory for storing code segments of a control program, a first semiconductor memory for storing code segments of a loader program, and a second semiconductor memory for receiving the code segments of the control program. When the disk drive is powered on, the microprocessor executes the loader program from the first semiconductor memory to load the control program from the non-volatile serial semiconductor memory into the second semiconductor memory. The microprocessor then executes the control program from the second semiconductor memory.

Abstract: A disk drive is disclosed which executes a rotational position optimization (RPO) algorithm to select a next command to execute from a command queue relative to an estimated access time. If an external vibration is detected, the RPO algorithm increases at least one of an estimated seek latency, an estimated settle latency, and an estimated rotational latency for each command in the command queue.

Abstract: The present invention may be embodied in a method, performed in a computer system having a disk drive, for installing an application program for execution under a user's preferred operating system without requiring user intervention. A command is received by the disk drive for reading a first data block to initiate a bootload of the user's preferred operating system. The disk drive detects the command and transfers a second data block which bootloads an installer program for installing the application program. The installer program is executed in the computer system to transfer the application program from a protected area of the disk drive to a user area of the disk drive, to modify a parameter of the user's preferred operating system to cause the application program to be loaded during a bootload of the user's preferred operating system, and to reboot the system to bootload the user's preferred operating system.

Abstract: A disk drive implements a technique for improving data storage capacity of data tracks having a servo wedge defect. A servo-fault position threshold is established for aborting a write operation if a transducer head position error from a circular track centerline exceeds the servo-fault position threshold. Servo wedges having operation, the servo-fault position threshold is ignored at a tagged servo wedge thereby preventing the tagged servo wedge from aborting a write operation. The data write operation is prevented for a predetermined number of servo wedges immediately following the tagged servo wedge by skipping data wedges between the tagged servo wedge and a last servo wedge of the predetermined number of servo wedges. Data may be written to a data wedge immediately following the last servo wedge.

Abstract: The invention may be embodied in a method and a related computer system. The computer system includes a host computer with a native drive-access routine having a limited address range, and a disk drive with a protected area that is inaccessible to a user's preferred operating system. The protected area also lies beyond the limited address range. The method includes receiving and detecting a command in the disk drive for reading a master boot record to initiate a bootload of the operating system. In response to detecting the command, the method includes transferring a drive-selected master boot record that, when executed in the computer system, initiates a process that enables address spoofing, loads an extended-address drive-access routine from the protected area using spoofed addresses within the limited address range, and executes the extended-address drive-access routine to replace the native drive-access routine for providing access to the protected area.

Abstract: A computer system has a host computer coupled to a disk drive having a host interface subsystem. The host interface subsystem includes a user partition, a drive management partition, and a disk-drive-selected application partition. The user partition stores data for execution by the host computer. The drive management partition stores data for execution by the disk drive. The disk-drive-selected application partition stores data for execution by the host computer in response to a drive-determined condition. The host interface subsystem further includes a user command interface that processes commands for storing data in the user partition, a first drive command interface that processes commands for storing data in the disk drive management partition according to a first disk-drive command protocol, and a second drive command interface that processes commands enabling data storage in the application partition according to a second disk-drive command protocol.