Granted Patent B2

US 12,591,396 · App. 18/820,819 · Granted Mar 31, 2026

Inventor: Shubhi Khanna (Bangalore, IN)

Assignee: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

G06F3/0659G06F3/0613G06F3/0679

Abstract

Claims (48)

1 . A data storage device, comprising:

one or more disks;

a non-volatile memory;

an actuator mechanism configured to position a selected head among one or more heads proximate to a corresponding disk surface of a corresponding disk among the one or more disks; and

one or more processing devices, individually or in combination, configured to:

send a first command to the non-volatile memory in response to determining that a seek time associated with a seek operation exceeds a threshold; and

send a second command to the non-volatile memory at or before an end of the seek operation;

wherein the non-volatile memory is configured to:

in response to receiving the first command, begin performing a pre-erase operation of one or more blocks in the non-volatile memory; and

in response to receiving the second command, cease performing the pre-erase operation.

2 . The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory comprises NAND flash memory.

3 . The data storage device of claim 2 , wherein the one or more blocks comprise one or more blocks in the NAND flash memory.

4 . The data storage device of claim 2 , wherein the one or more blocks comprise one or more single level cell (SLC) blocks in the NAND flash memory.

5 . The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the seek operation is associated with a read operation of data stored on the one or more disks.

6 . The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein:

the one or more disks are configured to store user data; and

the non-volatile memory is configured to store metadata associated with the data storage device.

7 . The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the threshold is based on an amount of time to erase a single block of the non-volatile memory.

8 . The data storage device of claim 7 , wherein the amount of time is predetermined and programmed in the data storage device.

9 . The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the first command and the second command define a window for performing the pre-erase operation.

10 . The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the performing the pre-erase operation comprises erasing the one or more blocks prior to the one or more blocks being allocated for a write operation.

11 . The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory is further configured to:

receive a write request from the one or more processing devices for writing metadata to the non-volatile memory; and

in response to receiving the write request, write the metadata to a pre-erased block in the non-volatile memory.

12 . The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory is further configured to perform another pre-erase operation of another one or more blocks of the non-volatile memory during background operations of the non-volatile memory.

13 . A method comprising:

sending a first command to a non-volatile memory in a data storage device that comprises one or more disks, wherein the sending the first command is in response to a seek time associated with a seek operation exceeding a threshold; and

sending a second command to the non-volatile memory at or before an end of the seek operation,

wherein the non-volatile memory is configured to:

in response to receiving the first command, begin performing a pre-erase operation of one or more blocks in the non-volatile memory; and

in response to receiving the second command, cease performing the pre-erase operation; and

wherein the sending the first command and the sending the second command are performed by one or more processing devices individually or in combination.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein:

the non-volatile memory comprises NAND flash memory; and

the one or more blocks comprise one or more blocks in the NAND flash memory.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the seek operation is associated with a read operation of data stored on the one or more disks.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the one or more disks are configured to store user data and the non-volatile memory is configured to store metadata associated with the data storage device.

17 . One or more hardware processing devices comprising, individually or in combination:

means for sending a first command to a non-volatile memory in response to determining that a seek time associated with a seek operation exceeds a threshold; and

means for sending a second command to the non-volatile memory at or before an end of the seek operation,

wherein the non-volatile memory is configured to:

in response to receiving the first command, begin performing a pre-erase operation of one or more blocks in the non-volatile memory; and

in response to receiving the second command, cease performing the pre-erase operation.

18 . The one or more hardware processing devices of claim 17 , wherein the first command and the second command define a window for performing the pre-erase operation.

19 . The one or more hardware processing devices of claim 18 , wherein the performing the pre-erase operation comprises erasing the one or more blocks prior to the one or more blocks being allocated for a write operation.

20 . The one or more hardware processing devices of claim 18 , further comprising, individually or in combination:

means for receiving a write request for writing metadata to the non-volatile memory; and

means for writing, in response to receiving the write request, the metadata to a pre-erased block in the non-volatile memory.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (16)