Modified areal densities for degraded storage device read heads
OwnerPaul Marion Green, Remmelt Pit +1inventors
InventorsPaul Marion Green, Remmelt Pit, David H. Jen
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Abstract
Systems, methods, and firmware for operating data storage devices and storage processors are provided herein. In one example, a data storage device is provided. The data storage device includes magnetic storage media configured to store data, read heads configured to read data from the magnetic storage media at associated areal densities, and a storage processor. The storage processor is configured to monitor read error rates of the read heads during operation of the data storage device to identify a degraded one of the read heads, and process at least the read error rates and an areal density of the degraded one of the read heads to modify the areal density of at least the degraded one of the read heads.
Claims15
A data storage device, comprising:
- magnetic storage media configured to store data;
- read heads configured to read data from the magnetic storage media at associated areal densities;
- and
- a storage processor configured to:
- monitor read error rates of the read heads during operation of the data storage device to identify a degraded one of the read heads, the degraded one of the read heads having degraded from performance determined during manufacture of the data storage device;
- process at least the read error rates and an areal density of the degraded one of the read heads to decrease the areal density of at least the degraded one of the read heads when the read error rate of the degraded one of the read heads exceeds a threshold error rate;
- and
- increase an areal density for at least another one of the read heads when the read error rate of the degraded one of the read heads exceeds the threshold error rate to at least offset the decrease in the areal density of the degraded one of the read heads and maintain a constant storage space for the data storage device.
A storage processor, comprising:
- a performance monitor module configured to monitor read error rates of read heads of a data storage device during operation of the data storage device to identify a degraded one of the read heads, the degraded one of the read heads having degraded from performance determined during manufacture of the data storage device, wherein the read heads are configured to read data from magnetic storage media of the data storage device at associated areal densities;
- and
- an areal density processing module configured to process at least the read error rates and an areal density of the degraded one of the read heads to decrease the areal density of at least the degraded one of the read heads when the read error rate of the degraded one of the read heads exceeds a threshold error rate;
- and
- the areal density processing module configured to increase an areal density for at least another one of the read heads when the read error rate of the degraded one of the read heads exceeds the threshold error rate to at least offset the decrease in the areal density of the degraded one of the read heads and maintain a constant storage space for the data storage device.
A method of operating a data storage processor, the method comprising:
- monitoring read error rates of read heads of a data storage device during operation of the data storage device to identify a degraded one of the read heads, the degraded one of the read heads having degraded from performance determined during manufacture of the data storage device, wherein the read heads are configured to read data from magnetic storage media of the data storage device at associated areal densities;
- and
- processing at least the read error rates and an areal density of the degraded one of the read heads to decrease the areal density of at least the degraded one of the read heads when the read error rate of the degraded one of the read heads exceeds a threshold error rate;
- and
- increasing an areal density for at least another one of the read heads when the read error rate of the degraded one of the read heads exceeds the threshold error rate to at least offset the decrease in the areal density of the degraded one of the read heads and maintain a constant storage space for the data storage device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.