Systems and methods for data throttling during disk drive power down

A method for managing power in a data storage system during a spin down mode, the data storage system comprising:

• a disk;
• a head;
• a spindle motor for rotating the disk, the spindle motor comprising a plurality of windings and a rotor rotatable at a variable spin rate wherein the rotor generates a back EMF (BEMF) voltage across the windings proportional to the spin rate of the rotor;
• a plurality of switching elements coupled to the windings;
• and
• switch control logic for generating switch control signals applied to the switching elements for generating an internal supply voltage from the BEMF during a spin down mode, the internal supply voltage enabling a controller to execute data programming operations for writing data from volatile memory to solid-state non-volatile memory in an event of a power interruption to the data storage system,
• the method comprising:
• providing a throttle signal to the controller in response to detecting that the internal supply voltage has fallen below a first predetermined level;
• wherein the throttle signal causes the controller to lengthen delay periods between program cycles for the data programming operations to the solid-state non-volatile memory.