Selective shingled magnetic recording scheme

A method for selectively designating tracks as guard regions between bands having a variable storage capacity per band, comprising:

• a) providing a plurality of tracks in an area of a disk surface consistently configured for shingled magnetic recording,
• b) determining the quality level of each track within said area, the quality level being measured in the number of defective sections per track, the size of defective sections, the severity level of defective sections, or a combination thereof,
• c) determining the radial distances on said disk surface, at least between tracks with a low quality level,
• d) sorting said plurality of tracks by quality level and selecting at least tracks with a low quality level by means of an optimization algorithm, taking into account the radial distances between the selected tracks such that defined criteria for the distribution of the selected tracks are met, wherein said optimization algorithm involves an approximation algorithm, a heuristic algorithm, or a combination thereof,
• e) placing guard regions at least on the selected tracks such that entire tracks are designated as circular guard regions, each circular guard region having a constant width,
• whereby at least a part of the defective sections are remedied without sector slipping and without spare sectors.

A storage device capable of selectively designating tracks as guard regions between bands having a variable storage capacity per band, comprising:

• a) a disk surface with a plurality of tracks consistently configured for shingled magnetic recording at least in an area, the tracks being grouped into bands by means of entire tracks designated as circular guard regions, each guard region having a constant width and an invariable sector count, the entire area being configured without spare sectors, and each band having a variable storage capacity without a minimum storage capacity,
• b) a write element, a read element, and
• c) a control unit configured to:
• i) determine that one or more defective sections are physically located on a single track in a first band, said single track being any track of said first band,
• ii) determine the radial distances on said disk surface between said one or more defective sections and the preceding and succeeding guard regions adjacent to said first band,
• iii) select said preceding guard region if said one or more defective sections are essentially located in the upper half of said first band,
• iv) select said succeeding guard region if said one or more defective sections are essentially located in the lower half of said first band,
• v) displace at least the selected guard region onto the physical location of said one or more defective sections, wherein the entire, circular guard region is displaced in the radial direction of said disk surface such that the radius of the circular guard region is changed,
• vi) decrease the track count of said first band by the number of tracks, by which said selected guard region is displaced,
• vii) convert the former physical location of said selected guard region into one or more newly constituted tracks, which are integrated into the regular tracks of a second band that is adjacent to said first band, said one or more newly constituted tracks being entire, circular tracks,
• viii) reassign payload data by moving allocations from said first band to said second band to such an extent that the decreased track count of said first band is compensated,
• ix) store payload data at least on said one or more newly constituted tracks,
• whereby said one or more defective sections are remedied without sector slipping and without spare sectors.