Systems and methods for improving sequential data rate performance using sorted data zones

A method for formatting a disk drive comprising a plurality of heads and a plurality of disk surfaces, wherein each disk surface comprises a plurality of data zones, each data zone having a data transfer rate, and wherein each head is configured to write data to a respective one of the disk surfaces, the method comprising:

• determining the data transfer rate of each of a plurality of head-zone combinations, each head-zone combination corresponding to one of the heads and one of the data zones of the respective disk surface;
• ordering the head-zone combinations from highest data transfer rate to lowest data transfer rate;
• and
• storing data related to the ordering in the disk drive.

A disk drive comprising:

• one or more disks having a plurality of disk surfaces, wherein each disk surface comprises a plurality of data zones, each data zone having a data transfer rate;
• a plurality of heads, each head configured to write data to a respective one of the disk surfaces;
• and
• a controller configured to operate the plurality of heads to access data on the plurality of disk surfaces according to a logical addressing that maps logical addresses according to an order of head-zone combinations ordered from highest data transfer rate to lowest data transfer rate, each head-zone combination corresponding to one of the heads and one of the data zones of the respective disk surface.