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US 7,095,578 B2Granted
Detection of fly height change in a disk drive using head drag
AssigneeIomega Corporation
InventorYiping Ma
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for detecting a change in fly-height comprises measuring motor currents at various radii at a regular interval to determine the head drag. If any of the head drags at the various radii are greater than a threshold value, it is determined that a decrease in fly-height has occurred. If the disk drive has a head cleaner, a head cleaning is initiated to correct the fly-height change. If no head cleaning is necessary, a general error signal may be generated to indicate potential drive failure.
Claims11
A method for detecting a change in fly-height comprising:
- measuring a motor current at one or more radii;
- determining head drag from the motor current;
- comparing the head drag to a predetermined value;
- and
- determining a decrease in fly-height if the change in head drag is greater than the predetermined value.
2 more elements
A method of initiating head cleaning in a disk drive comprising:
- establishing a baseline head drag;
- measuring a transient head drag;
- and
- calculating change in head drag and initiating head cleaning if the change in head drag exceeds a threshold.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.