Method and system for controlling the positioning of a read/write head of a data recording device

A data recording device, said data recording device comprising:

• a data recording medium comprising a plurality of recording positions;
• a head positioning element that moves a read/write head from a start position to a target recording position on said data recording medium;
• and
• a control element that supplies control signals to said head positioning element and utilizes a first control signal to start movement of said read/write head of said data recording device from an initial position to a target position;
• an estimation element that estimates a plurality of position compensation values for utilization with an initial value compensation method and stores said plurality of position compensation values in a memory accessible to a data recording device;
• a position sampling element that samples a position value of said read/write head during movement;
• a computation element that computes a position deviation value of said read/write head from said target position to said sampled position value;
• a selection element that selects a set of said plurality of positioning compensation values from said memory, in response to said calculation of said positional deviation;
• and
• a compensation element that determines a second output signal by said initial value compensation method utilizing said selected set of said plurality of position compensation values, said calculated position deviation value, and said first control signal value;
• wherein said control element thereafter switches to said second control signal for controlling the movement of said read/write head, wherein continuous smooth control of positioning of said read/write head is achieved in switching from control by a first output signal to a second output signal.