Method for formatting data sectors on magnetic disk, and magnetic disk drive

A magnetic disk drive comprising:

• a magnetic disk having a plurality of tracks, each of said plurality of tracks being divided into a plurality of zones in a radial direction, data sectors being formatted, on a zone basis, in units of N tracks (N is an integer, which is 2 or more);
• a spindle that supports the magnetic disk for rotation;
• and
• a magnetic head that is positioned at a recording track of the magnetic disk so as to write/read data to/from the data sector;
• wherein a controller that identifies a zone that includes a track number of a data sector from which read or write is staffed, identifies the number of tracks N corresponding to the zone, converts the track number into a zone-specific track number in the zone, performs modulo arithmetic of the zone-specific track number by the number of tracks N of the zone, and determines a track format of the N number of tracks from the identified zone and the result of the modulo arithmetic.

A magnetic disk drive having a controller which formats data sectors on a magnetic disk, on a zone basis, in units of N tracks (N is an integer, which is 2 or more), the controller having modules configured to:

• identify a zone that includes a track number of a data sector from which read or write is started;
• identify the number of tracks N corresponding to the zone;
• convert the track number into a zone-specific track number in the zone;
• perform modulo arithmetic of the zone-specific track number by the number of tracks N of the zone;
• and
• determine a track format of the N number of tracks from the identified zone and the result of the modulo arithmetic.