Position error signal quality

A method of generating confidence level of a position error signal (PES) component produced by a servo control system that is indicative of a quality of the PES component, the method comprising:

• a) obtaining position signal samples of a read back signal corresponding to a servo burst pattern taken at a sampling frequency;
• b) generating a transform domain representation of the position signal samples based on the sampling frequency and the burst pattern;
• c) generating a PES component based on a position signal component of the transformed domain representation;
• d) extracting a noise level from the transformed domain representation corresponding to noise in the read back signal;
• and
• e) generating a confidence level based on the PES component and the noise level.

A servo control system configured to control a position of a transducing head in response to position signal samples of a read back signal corresponding to a servo burst pattern taken at a sampling frequency, the system comprising:

• a transformation block having a transformed domain representation output of the position signal samples;
• a position error signal (PES) component extractor having a PES component output corresponding to the servo burst pattern, which is based on the position signal samples;
• a noise extractor having a noise level output corresponding to noise in the read back signal, which is based on the transformed domain representation;
• and
• a confidence level generator having a confidence level output that is indicative of a quality of the PES component based on the PES component output and the noise level output.