Abstract: A disk drive having a rotary actuator, an embedded servo system for controlling the rotary actuator, a rotating disk surface for recording and reproducing data, and a dual element head supported by the actuator comprising a read element and a write element. The disk surface has a plurality of repeating servo track patterns defining radially spaced-apart servo tracks. The disk surface further includes a user data band having a plurality of radially spaced-apart data tracks for storing user data. Each data track is written with an offset from a corresponding servo track centerline depending on a skew introduced by the dual element head. A reserved band is located outside the user data portion including a reserved data track for storing drive specific data wherein the reserved data track is centrally aligned with a corresponding servo track centerline. The reserved data track can be read reliably by the read element when the servo system is tracking on the servo track centerline.