Abstract: In a method for predicting failure of a disc drive during operation of the disc drive, a write fault count is maintained that corresponds to write faults encountered during write operations to a disc of the disc drive. Additionally, a frequency domain representation of a position error signal of a head of the disc drive is obtained. Finally, failure of the disc drive is predicted based on the write fault count and the frequency domain representation of the position error signal. Another aspect of the present invention relates to a disc drive that is capable of performing the above-described method.

Abstract: The present invention includes apparatus and methods to suppress transients that would otherwise have an effect on a power supply. The present invention accomplishes this by providing a power supply transient suppressor between the power supply and an inductive load, such as a spindle motor of a disc drive. The power supply transient suppressor is turned off at certain desired times so that transients caused by the inductive load do not affect the power supply. One apparatus to accomplish this suppression is to use an isolation transistor and a blocking diode. The blocking diode can be a discrete device or can be inherent in the isolation transistor. The isolation transistor is turned on and off so that undesired transients are not passed to the power supply. For example, during spin up of the spindle motor, the isolation transistor can be turned on and off to block the transients from passing to the power supply.