Super-parity block layout for multi-reader drives

A system comprising:

• a disk comprising a recording surface formatted with a plurality of concentric data tracks;
• a read/write head associated with the recording surface and comprising a plurality of reader elements and configured to read a plurality of data tracks concurrently, wherein the recording surface is segmented into super blocks comprising a portion of each of a number of data tracks, the number of data tracks in each super block being equal to the number of the plurality of data tracks that are read concurrently by the plurality of reader elements, each super block further comprising parity information on one of the number of data tracks, the parity information comprising data recovery information for the super block;
• and
• a controller operably connected to the read/write head and configured to:
• upon detecting an unrecoverable data error in a read operation from the disk, read the super block containing a target segment of the read operation, the reading of the super block requiring less than one full rotation of the disk;
• and
• use data read from the super block and the parity information to recover data from the target segment.