Granted Patent B1

US 6,898,044 · App. 10/427,499 · Granted May 24, 2005

Abstract

Claims (24)

1. A method for selecting format specific parameters in a disk drive comprising a control system and a plurality of disk surfaces each having a surface format for storing data, wherein at least one surface format is different than other surface formats, the method comprising:

initializing the disk drive for operation;

receiving a data transfer command;

selecting a disk surface for performing data transfer operations based on the received data transfer command;

selecting a format specific data structure corresponding to the selected disk surface;

calculating a format specific variable using the selected format specific data structure; and

performing the data transfer operations by the control system based on the calculated variable.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the selected disk surface comprises a plurality of zones and wherein the format specific variable is a wedge-position-number for a selected sector in a zone on the selected disk surface.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the selected disk surface is logically partitioned into a plurality of wedge-groups having the same number of wedges in each wedge-group,

wherein each sector in each wedge of a wedge-group having the same timing value as a corresponding sector in a corresponding wedge of other wedge-groups.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the selected format specific data structure comprises:

a sector-variable-number corresponding to number of sectors in each wedge-group; and

a wedge-variable-number corresponding to the number of wedges in each wedge-group.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the calculating the format specific variable further comprises:

multiplying the wedge-variable-number by a first sector number corresponding to the selected sector and generating a multiplication result;

dividing the multiplication result by the sector-variable-number and generating a division result; and

obtaining an integer-quotient of the division result wherein the wedge wedge-position-number comprises the integer-quotient.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the first sector number is obtained by subtracting an integer value from a second sector number corresponding to the selected sector.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the integer value is 1.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the second sector number is a physical sector address for the selected sector translated from an obtained logical block address of the selected selector via a translation process.

9. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the first sector number is a physical sector address for the selected sector translated from an obtained logical block address of the selected selector via a translation process.

10. The method as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the selected format specific data structure comprises a hard-sector description table (HSDT) having the wedge-variable-number.

11. The method as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the selected format specific data structure comprises a hard-sector description table (HSDT) having the sector-variable-number.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the data transfer command is received from a host computer in communication with the disk drive.

Assignments (8)