Granted Patent B1

US 8,694,841 · App. 13/528,686 · Granted Apr 8, 2014

Abstract

Claims (55)

1. A method to enable defect margining of a disk drive storing user data, the method comprising:

executing a data access command on as target sector on the disk drive to access at least user data;

upon encountering a data access error at the target sector, adding an address of the target sector to an error list;

converting the address of the target sector in the error list to a physical location on the disk drive;

performing a thermal asperity scan at and around the physical location; and

upon detecting a thermal asperity, margining at least sectors around the detected thermal asperity and relocating at least the user data previously stored within the margined sectors.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein converting, performing and margining are performed as a background process.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein margining is performed as a background process.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein adding the address of the target sector comprise adding logical block address of the target sector to the error list.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising removing the address of the target sector from the error list after relocating the data stored in the margined sectors.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein margining at least surrounding the detected thermal asperity comprises margining a plurality of sectors such that the detected thermal asperity is surrounded by a plurality of margined sectors.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein margining at least surrounding the detected thermal asperity comprises surrounding the thermal asperity by sufficient number of margined sectors to define a margined width between the detected thermal asperity and non-margined sectors that is at least equal to a width of a gap between at reader and writer of a read/write head of the disk drive.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein margining at least sectors around the detected thermal asperity comprises margining a plurality of tracks, and wherein relocating at least data stored within the margined sectors comprises relocating data of the plurality of tracks to a spare location on the disk drive.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein relocating comprises relocating data of the plurality of tracks to a spare location on the disk drive, one track at a time.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising updating an exception list after each track is relocated.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein, after relocating each track, the method further comprises determining whether a host command has been issued and executing any host command having been issued.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising verifying each relocated track before relocating a next track.

13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising returning a status of the relocating of data in the plurality of tracks.

14. A disk drive storing user data, comprising:

a read/write head;

a disk, the disk being formatted to comprise a plurality of tracks, each track defining a plurality of sectors; and

a controller configured to:

execute a data access command on a target sector on the disk drive to access at least the user data;

upon encountering a data access error at the target sector, add an address of the target sector to an error list;

convert the address of the target sector in the error list to a physical location on the disk drive; and

perform a thermal asperity scan at and around the physical location; and

upon detecting a thermal asperity, margin at least sectors around the detected thermal asperity and relocating at least the user data stored within the margined sectors.

15. The disk drive of claim 14 , wherein the controller is further configured to carry out the converting, performing and margining as a background process.

16. The disk drive of claim 14 , wherein the controller is further configured to carry out margining as a background process.

17. The disk drive of claim 14 , wherein the controller is further configured to add a logical block address of the target sector to the error list.

18. The disk drive of claim 14 , wherein the controller is further configured to remove the address of the target sector from the error list after the data stored in the margined sectors has been relocated.

19. The disk drive of claim 14 , wherein the controller is further configured to margin at least sectors around the detected thermal asperity such that the detected thermal asperity is surrounded by a plurality of margined sectors.

20. The disk drive of claim 14 , wherein the controller is further configured to surround the thermal asperity by a sufficient number of margined sectors to define a margined width between the detected thermal asperity and non-margined sectors that is at least equal to a width of a gap between a reader and writer of the read/write head.

21. The disk drive of claim 14 , wherein the controller is further configured to:

margin a plurality of tracks; and

relocate data stored in the plurality of tracks to a spite location on the disk drive.

22. The disk drive of claim 21 , wherein the controller is further configured to relocate data of the plurality of tracks to a spare location on the disk drive, one track at a time.

23. The disk drive of claim 22 , wherein the controller is further configured to update an exception list after the data of each track is relocated.

24. The disk drive of claim 22 , wherein the controller is further configured to after relocating the data of each track:

determine whether a host command has been issued; and

execute any host command having been issued.

25. The disk drive of claim 22 , wherein the controller is further configured to verify each relocated track before relocating a next track.

26. The disk drive of claim 22 , wherein the controller is further configured to return a status of the relocation of data in the plurality of tracks.

27. A method of operating a disk drive, comprising:

writing user data to a target sector on the disk drive;

reading the target sector and encountering a read error at the target sector;

adding an address of the target sector to an error list;

converting the address of the target sector in the error list to a physical location on the disk drive;

performing a thermal asperity scan at and around the physical location; and

upon detecting a thermal asperity, margining at least sectors around the detected thermal asperity and relocating any user data stored within the margined sectors.

28. The method of claim 27 , wherein at least margining is performed as a background process.

29. The method of claim 27 , further comprising removing the address of the target sector from the error list after relocating the user data previously stored in the margined sectors.

30. The method of claim 27 , wherein margining at east surrounding the detected thermal asperity comprises margining as plurality of sectors such that the detected thermal asperity is surrounded by a plurality of margined sectors.

31. The method of claim 27 , wherein margining at least surrounding the detected thermal asperity comprises surrounding the thermal asperity by a sufficient number of margined sectors to define a margined width between the detected thermal asperity and non-margined sectors that is at least equal to a width of a gap between a reader and writer of a read/write head of the disk drive.

32. The method of claim 27 , wherein margining at least sectors around the detected thermal asperity comprises margining a plurality of tracks, and wherein relocating at least data stored within the margined sectors comprises relocating data of the plurality of tracks to a spare location on the disk drive.

Assignments (7)