Addressing insufficient bit error rates amongst segments

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• group sectors of a data track on a recording medium into a plurality of segments;
• determine an average bit-error rate (“BER”) for each of the plurality of segments based on the BER of the sectors grouped into the segment;
• determine a bits-per-inch capability (“BPIC”) value for the segment having a poorest average BER;
• determine a BPIC value for the entire data track;
• and
• calculate a bits-per-inch (“BPI”) adjustment needed to address the segment having the poorest average BER by subtracting the BPIC value for the segment having the poorest average BER from the BPIC value for the entire data track.

A system comprising:

• a hard disk drive comprising a recording medium;
• a processor operably connected to the hard disk drive;
• and
• a VBAR tuning module operably connected to the hard disk drive and the processor and configured to perform steps of
• group sectors of a data track on the recording medium into a plurality of segments,
• determine an average bit-error rate (“BER”) for each of the plurality of segments based on the BER of the sectors grouped into the segment,
• determine a bits-per-inch capability (“BPIC”) value for the segment having a poorest average BER,
• determine a BPIC value for the entire data track,
• calculate a bits-per-inch (“BPI”) adjustment needed to address the segment having the poorest average BER by subtracting the BPIC value for the segment having the poorest average BER from the BPIC value for the entire data track, and
• determine a final BPI value for the data track based on the BPI adjustment.