Methods and systems for magnetic recording
View Patent ↗According to one aspect, methods and systems for determining the position of a recording head using existing data structures on magnetic storage media are provided. In one example, a recording head writes data to an active track on a magnetic storage tape, the recording head including a write element and a read element in a known spatial relationship, wherein the read element is configured to access at least a portion of a reference track when the write element is accessing the active track. A controller determines a relative position of the transducer element to the reference track and repositions the recording head to write data to the active track. The read element may be a backward channel reader or dedicated read element of the recording head for reading reference tracks during read and/or write operations.
1. A method for recording data tracks on a magnetic storage medium, comprising:
recording a first data track on a storage medium;
recording a second data track on the storage medium, the second data track partially overlapping the first data track;
generating a read signal from a backward read element associated with a multichannel transducer head, the read signal associated with the first data track stored on the magnetic storage medium; and
determining the relative position of the second data track relative to the first data track from the read signal.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the backward read element is aligned with a center of the first data track.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the backward read element is aligned with an edge of the first data track.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating multiple read signals from multiple read elements, wherein the read elements include backward read elements of the multichannel transducer head.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein at least two of the multiple read elements are configured to be relatively offset with at least two different data tracks.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising repositioning the transducer head relative to the magnetic storage medium based on the read signal.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a characteristic of the read signal varies as a function of offset between the first data track and the read element.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the characteristic includes at least one of error signal values, noise signals, average amplitude, average energy, k-bit values, and error rate values.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the read signal includes a signal quality parametric that varies as a function of offset between the read element and the first data track.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the width of the first data track and the second data track vary from each other.
11. A head positioning servo system, comprising:
a transducer head having a forward read element, a forward write element, and a backward read element; and
a controller for adjusting the position of the transducer head relative to a magnetic storage medium during a writing operation in response to a read signal generated from a reference data track stored on the magnetic storage medium.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the backward read element is aligned with a center of the reference data track.
13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the backward read element is aligned with an edge of the reference data track.
14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the data transducer further includes a multi-channel head having multiple backward read elements.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein at least two of the multiple backward read elements are configured to be relatively offset with at least two different data tracks.
16. The system of claim 11 , wherein a characteristic of the read signal varies as a function of offset between the reference track and the read element.
17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the characteristic includes at least one of error signal values, noise signals, average amplitude, average energy, k-bit values, and error rate values.
18. The system of claim 11 , wherein the read signal includes a signal quality parametric that varies as a function of offset between the read element and the reference data track.
19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the write element and the backward read element are separated by a distance, the distance configured such that alignment of the read element with at least a portion of a reference track results in the write element being positioned adjacent and partially overwriting the reference track.
20. A method for recording multiple data tracks in a variable width track format, comprising
recording a plurality of adjacent data tracks along a magnetic storage tape, wherein each successively recorded data track partially overlaps a previously written data track, the width of at least two data tracks varies, and each successively recorded data track is recorded to the magnetic storage tape based on position information obtained from a signal from a backward read element of a multichannel transducer head in response to a previously written data track.
21. A method for recording data tracks on a magnetic storage medium, comprising:
recording a first data track on a storage medium;
recording a second data track on the storage medium, the second data track partially overlapping the first data track;
generating a read signal from a read element associated with a transducer head, the read signal associated with the first data track stored on the magnetic storage medium, wherein a characteristic of the read signal varies as a function of offset between the first data track and the read element, the characteristic comprising error rate values; and
determining the relative position of the second data track relative to the first data track from the read signal.
22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the characteristic includes at least one of the following: error signal values noise signals, average amplitude, average energy, and k-bit values.
23. The method of claim 21 , wherein the read element includes a backward read element of a multichannel transducer head.
24. The method of claim 21 , wherein the characteristic further comprises error signal values.
25. The method of claim 21 , wherein the characteristic further comprises noise signals.
26. The method of claim 21 , wherein the characteristic further comprises average amplitude.
27. The method of claim 21 , wherein the characteristic further comprises k-bit values.