Apparatus and method for dynamic multiple actuator drive data access

A method comprising:

• providing a data storage medium and a plurality of actuators for accessing data stored on the data storage medium, the data storage medium having a disk with magnetically encoded data, the plurality of actuators each being mounted on a different shaft at different locations around a surface of the data storage medium, the different locations being different angular positions relative to the center of the data storage medium, the different locations not being concentric, each actuator of the plurality of actuators being physically configured to access only a portion of the available tracks on the data storage medium and different subsets of the available tracks, each actuator being positioned adjacent to a subset of the available tracks and an arm of each actuator being physically configured to rotate only through a pre-defined subset of tracks;
• receiving a data transfer request including at least one data package;
• determining a type of the data transfer request;
• partitioning the data package into a plurality of data segments, if the data transfer request is a parallel data mode request;
• assigning one or more actuator drivers and one or more actuator controllers for the data transfer request;
• initiating a data transfer to or from the data storage medium using one or more of the plurality of actuators corresponding to the one or more assigned actuator controllers;
• storing or retrieving an individual data package of the data transfer request to or from the data storage medium wherein the entire data package is wholly accessible to a single actuator, if the data transfer request is a random data mode request;
• and
• storing or retrieving an individual data segment of the data transfer request to or from the data storage medium wherein the data package is accessible to the plurality of actuators, if the request is a parallel data mode request.