Accelerated media scan method for detection of disk drive handling damage

A method for scanning a disk drive for media damage, comprising:

• setting a current cylinder number to an initial target cylinder number;
• reading data stored on a track associated with the current cylinder number;
• checking the data read from the track for an error indicative of media damage;
• setting the current cylinder number to a next target cylinder number that is equal to the current cylinder number plus a cylinder skip factor, wherein the cylinder skip factor causes the current cylinder number to change by more than one cylinder number;
• and
• repeating the reading and checking steps;
• wherein each cylinder number is associated with a plurality of tracks and each track of a cylinder number is further associated with a read/write head number, and wherein before the reading step, the method further comprises setting a current read/write head number to a first target head number and scanning the tracks associated with the first target head number in accordance with the reading, checking, and repeating steps, and then setting the current read/write head number to a next target head number and scanning the tracks associated with the next target head number in accordance with the reading, checking, and repeating steps.

A method for scanning a disk drive for media damage, comprising:

• setting a current cylinder number to an initial target cylinder number;
• reading data stored on a track associated with the current cylinder number;
• checking the data read from the track for an error indicative of media damage;
• setting the current cylinder number to a next target cylinder number that is equal to the current cylinder number plus a cylinder skip factor, wherein the cylinder skip factor causes the current cylinder number to change by more than one cylinder number;
• repeating the reading and checking steps;
• and
• logging each error indicative of media damage and reporting the disk drive as damaged if the number of errors exceeds a predetermined threshold number.

A method for scanning a disk drive for media damage, comprising:

• setting a current cylinder number to an initial target cylinder number;
• reading data stored on a track associated with the current cylinder number;
• checking the data read from the track for an error indicative of media damage;
• setting the current cylinder number to a next target cylinder number that is equal to the current cylinder number plus a cylinder skip factor, wherein the cylinder skip factor causes the current cylinder number to change by more than one cylinder number;
• repeating the reading and checking steps;
• and
• logging each error indicative of media damage by disk location and reporting the disk drive as damaged if the number of errors within a particular disk region exceeds a predetermined threshold number.

A method for scanning a disk drive for media damage, comprising:

• setting a current cylinder number to an initial target cylinder number;
• reading data stored on a track associated with the current cylinder number, wherein the reading step is performed with zero rotational latency after a seek to the current cylinder number;
• checking the data read from the track for an error indicative of media damage;
• setting the current cylinder number to a next target cylinder number that is equal to the current cylinder number plus a cylinder skip factor, wherein the cylinder skip factor causes the current cylinder number to change by more than one cylinder number;
• and
• repeating the reading and checking steps.

A method for scanning a disk drive for media damage comprising:

• setting a current cylinder number to an initial target cylinder number;
• reading data stored on a track associated with the current cylinder number;
• checking the data read from the track for an error indicative of media damage;
• setting the current cylinder number to a next target cylinder number that is equal to the current cylinder number plus a cylinder skip factor, wherein the cylinder skip factor causes the current cylinder number to change by at least 4 cylinder numbers;
• and repeating the reading and checking steps.

A method for scanning a disk drive for media damage comprising:

• setting a current cylinder number to an initial target cylinder number;
• reading data stored on a track associated with the current cylinder number;
• checking the data read from the track for an error indicative of media damage;
• setting the current cylinder number to a next target cylinder number that is equal to the current cylinder number plus a cylinder skip factor, wherein the cylinder skip factor causes the current cylinder number to change by at least 10 cylinder numbers;
• and
• repeating the reading and checking steps.

A method for scanning a disk drive for media damage comprising:

• setting a current cylinder number to an initial target cylinder number;
• reading data stored on a track associated with the current cylinder number;
• checking the data read from the track for an error indicative of media damage;
• setting the current cylinder number to a next target cylinder number that is equal to the current cylinder number plus a cylinder skip factor, wherein the cylinder skin factor causes the current cylinder number to change by more than one cylinder number, and the cylinder skip factor is based on a size of a read/write head and on a track density;
• and
• repeating the reading and checking steps.