Tracking hot areas of disk drive

A method to determine use of areas of a disk drive, comprising:

• initiating a time interval;
• identifying a data access of a first accessed area node of the disk drive;
• determining whether a score for the first accessed area node exists;
• upon determining the score for the first accessed area node does not exist, determining whether the first accessed area node overlaps with one or more other area nodes having an existing score, wherein the one or more other area nodes includes a second area node;
• and
• upon determining the first accessed area node overlaps with the second area node, splitting the second area node into at least a first split area node and a second split area node.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer executable instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform the steps of:

• initiating a time interval;
• identifying a data access of a first accessed area node of the disk drive;
• determining whether a score for the first accessed area node exists;
• upon determining the score for the first accessed area node does not exist, determining whether the first accessed area node overlaps with one or more other area nodes having an existing score, wherein the one or more other area nodes includes a second area node, and wherein each of the one or more other area nodes are included in a table of hot area candidates;
• and
• upon determining the first accessed area node overlaps with the second area node, splitting the second area node into at least a first split area node and a second split area node.