Non-consecutive transitional mechanism for seek operations when transitioning from a seek control to a track following control

A method of transitioning from a seek control operation to a track following operation in a disc drive system, comprising:

• sampling a metric of a read/write head of the disc drive system;
• comparing the metric to a threshold;
• determining if the metric is within the threshold or exceeds the threshold;
• incrementing a consecutive counter if the metric is within the threshold;
• determining if a current count of the consecutive counter is a first predetermined value;
• incrementing a non-consecutive counter if the consecutive counter is the first predetermined value;
• determining if a current count of the non-consecutive counter is a second predetermined value;
• and
• initiating the track following operation if the current count of the non-consecutive counter is the second predetermined value.

A controller, comprising:

• a comparator;
• a consecutive counter coupled to the comparator;
• and
• a non-consecutive counter coupled to the consecutive counter;
• wherein the comparator receives sampled data, compares the sampled data to a threshold, and outputs a result of the comparison, wherein the consecutive counter either increments or resets based on the results of the comparison, wherein the non-consecutive counter increments when a count of the consecutive counter reaches a first predetermined value, and wherein the non-consecutive counter initiates a transition of control to a track following control when a count of the non-consecutive counter reaches a second predetermined value.