Virtual track for serpentine track format

A method of representing a serpentine track accessing format, the method comprising:

• obtaining a plurality of head and physical track number pairs in the serpentine track accessing format;
• and
• mapping each of the plurality of head and physical track number pairs to a corresponding unique virtual track number, comprising:
• selecting a modulo M as a function of a maximum number of tracks per physical zone;
• within each physical zone, assigning each physical track an offset value N sequentially, wherein offset value N is less than or equal to M−1;
• assigning each physical zone a unique value P which reflects its traversing sequence;
• and
• for each physical track, combining its offset value N and the unique value P assigned to its corresponding physical zone to obtain the corresponding unique virtual track number K.

A data storage system comprising:

• a plurality of recording surfaces, with each recording surface including a plurality of physical data tracks;
• a plurality of heads, with each of the plurality of heads positioned adjacent to one of the plurality of recording surfaces, thereby forming a plurality of head and physical track number pairs in a serpentine track accessing format;
• and
• a translation engine configured to obtain the plurality of head and physical track number pairs in the serpentine track accessing format, and to map each of the plurality of head and physical track number pairs to a corresponding unique virtual track number by assigning the unique virtual track number in a manner which results in the virtual track numbers being in a non-continuous monotonic order as the head and physical track number pairs are sequentially traversed in the serpentine track accessing format.