Method and apparatus for detecting defects on a disk in a hard disk drive
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorHo-Yul Bang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for determining a number of defects detected on a disk in a hard disk drive. The hard disk drive comprises an actuator arm mounted to a housing and a head mounted to the actuator arm. A spin motor is mounted to the housing and a disk is attached to the spin motor. The disk has a plurality of tracks, each of which has a plurality of sectors. Each of the sectors has a data field. The hard disk drive further comprises a defect detection circuit coupled to the head that detects a number of defects located in the data field. In one embodiment, the hard disk drive comprises a defect size detection circuit coupled to the head, that detects a corresponding size of each defect detected.
Claims20
A hard disk drive, comprising:
- a housing;
- an actuator arm mounted to said housing;
- a head mounted to said actuator arm;
- a spin motor mounted to said housing;
- and
- a disk attached to said spin motor, said disk having a plurality of tracks, each of said tracks having a plurality of sectors, each of said sectors having a data field, said head to generate a read signal that corresponds to a magnetic field on a corresponding location of said disk;
- a clock circuit to provide clocking pulses;
- an interface circuit coupled to the head, said interface circuit generating a defect reference pulse indicative of an occurrence of a defect if the read signal is less than a predetermined reference signal, the defect reference pulse having a pulse width corresponding to a time interval during which the read signal is less than the predetermined reference signal, said pulse width being greater than a clocking pulse;
- and
- a defect count circuit coupled to said head, said clock circuit and said interface circuit to detect a number of defects located in said data field, said defect count circuit providing a count corresponding to each occurrence of a defect reference pulse, said number of defects being a total of said count.
A method for detecting a number of defects on a disk in a hard drive assembly, comprising:
- providing a disk attached to a hard disk drive assembly, said disk having a plurality of tracks, each of said tracks having plurality of sectors, each of said sectors having a data field that has a plurality of data bits;
- reading the plurality of data bits in one of said plurality of sectors;
- generating a read signal based on said reading of the plurality of data bits;
- generating a plurality of clocking pulses;
- generating a defect reference pulse indicative of an occurrence of a defect if the read signal is less than a predetermined reference signal, the defect reference pulse having a pulse width corresponding to a time interval during which the read signal is less than the predetermined reference signal, said pulse width being greater than a clocking pulse;
- counting each occurrence of a defect reference pulse to provide a total count;
- and
- providing said total count as a number of errors in said data field.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.