Using disk drive parallelism to increase drive capability while maintaining a baseline performance

A data storage drive, comprising:

• circuitry operable to cause two or more heads to simultaneously access separate data streams associated with one or more disk surfaces of the data storage device;
• a controller configured to:
• determine a first bit aspect ratio of data recorded to the one or more disk surfaces that provides a baseline data transfer performance of the data storage drive if only a single one of the heads processes the data stream, the first bit aspect ratio providing a first areal density, the data storage drive achieving a performance greater than the baseline performance at the first bit aspect ratio using the two or more heads to simultaneously access the two or more data streams;
• determine a second bit aspect ratio that results in the data storage drive achieving the baseline data transfer performance using the two or more heads to simultaneously access the two or more data streams, the second bit aspect ratio providing a second areal density greater than the first areal density;
• and
• using the second bit aspect ratio for reading from and writing to one or more disk surfaces via the two or more heads.

A data storage drive, comprising:

• circuitry operable to cause two or more heads to simultaneously access separate data streams associated with one or more disks of the data storage device;
• a controller configured to:
• determine a first speed of the one or more disks that provides a baseline performance of the data storage drive if only a single one of the heads processes the data stream, the data storage drive achieving a performance greater than the baseline performance at the first speed using the two or more heads to simultaneously access the two or more data streams;
• determine a second speed of the one or more disks that results in the data storage drive achieving the baseline performance using the two or more heads to simultaneously access the two or more data streams, the second speed facilitating an increase in total surface area of the one or more disks;
• and
• using the second speed of the one or more disks for reading from and writing to one or more disk surfaces via the two or more heads.