Disk drive rewriting servo sectors by writing and servoing off of temporary servo data written in data sectors

A method of operating a disk drive, the disk drive comprising a disk having a plurality of tracks, wherein each track comprises a plurality of data sectors and a plurality of servo sectors, and a head actuated over the disk, the head comprising a read element radially offset from a write element by a reader/writer offset, the method comprising:

• detecting a marginal servo sector in a target track;
• relocating user data recorded in a first data sector of a near adjacent track to a staging memory;
• writing servo data over the first data sector;
• using the read element to read the servo data written over the first data sector to move the head to rewrite the marginal servo sector of the target track;
• and
• rewriting the user data stored in the staging memory to the first data sector.

A disk drive comprising:

• a disk comprising a plurality of tracks, wherein each track comprises a plurality of data sectors and a plurality of servo sectors;
• a head actuated over the disk, the head comprising a read element radially offset from a write element by a reader/writer offset;
• a means for detecting a marginal servo sector in a target track;
• a means for relocating user data recorded in a first data sector of a near adjacent track to a staging memory;
• a means for writing servo data over the first data sector;
• a means for using the read element to read the servo data written over the first data sector to actuate the head to rewrite the marginal servo sector of the target track;
• and
• a means for rewriting the user data stored in the staging memory to the first data sector.