SETTING WRITER BOUNDARIES FOR MULTIPLE WRITERS

• US 20100007986A1
• Filed: 07/14/2008
• Published: 01/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: Mak, HonYeong, Lim, Lin Nah, Kan, UttHeng, Wu, Det Hau, Seng, Edmun ChianSong
• Granted Patent: US 7,907,360 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 360/78.40
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/59633 Servo formatting G11B5/59627, G11B5/59677, G11B5/59683, G11B5/59688 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/59638 Servo formatting apparatuses, e.g. servo-writers

Abstract

A storage medium having a boundary located along a surface of the storage medium that functions as a transition point for selectively operating a first writer and a second writer of a plurality of writers, where the location of the boundary is set based on writing capabilities of the plurality of writers.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a location along a surface of a storage medium based on writing capabilities of a plurality of writers;

setting a boundary at the determined location along the storage medium surface, wherein the boundary functions as a transition point for selectively operating a first writer and a second writer of the plurality of writers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the boundary is set at a non-nominal setpoint along a radius of the storage medium surface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location along the storage medium surface comprises:

identifying a first data zone of the storage medium surface in which a writing capability of the first writer is greater than a writing capability of the second writer; and

identifying a second data zone of the storage medium surface that is adjacent to the first data zone, and in which the writing capability of the first writer is less than the writing capability of the second writer.

4. The method of claim 1, and further comprising:

configuring the first writer to write within a first data zone group on the storage medium surface that is located on a first side of the boundary; and

configuring the second writer to write within a second data zone group on the storage medium surface that is located on an opposing side of the boundary from the first side.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein configuring the first writer and configuring the second writer comprise assigning parameters to at least one controller used to operate the first writer and the second writer, the assigned parameters being based at least in part on the determined location of the set boundary.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the boundary is a first boundary, and wherein the method further comprises setting a second boundary for the plurality of writers along the storage medium surface based on the writing capabilities of the plurality of writers, wherein the second boundary functions as a transition point for selectively operating the second writer and a third writer of the plurality of writers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage medium surface comprises a plurality of data zones, and wherein the boundary divides the plurality of data zones into at least a first data zone group and a second data zone group, the first writer being selectively operated to write data in the first data zone group and the second writer being selectively operated to write data in the second data zone group.

8. A method comprising:

performing at least one measurement operation between a storage medium and a plurality of writers to identify writing capabilities; and

setting a boundary at a location along a surface of the storage medium based on the identified data writing capabilities, the boundary dividing data zones of the storage medium into at least a first data zone group writable with a first writer of the plurality of writers and a second data zone group writable with a second writer of the plurality of writers.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one measurement operation is selected from the group consisting of track density capability measurements, a linear density capability measurements, areal density capability measurements, and combinations thereof.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the set location of the boundary is a non-nominal setpoint location along a radius of the storage medium surface.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein setting the boundary at the location along the storage medium surface comprises:

identifying a first data zone in which a writing capability of the first writer is greater than a writing capability of the second writer; and

identifying a second data zone that is adjacent to the first data zone, and in which the writing capability of the first writer is less than the writing capability of the second writer.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the boundary is a first boundary, and wherein the method further comprises setting a second boundary at a second location along the storage medium surface based on the identified writing capabilities, wherein the second boundary further divides the data zones of the storage medium into a third data zone group writable with a third writer of the plurality of writers.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein performing the at least one measurement operation comprises performing a linear density measurement on each of the first writer and the second writer at a data track that is located substantially at a nominal setpoint location along a radius of the storage medium surface.

14. The method of claim 8, and further comprising assigning parameters to at least one controller used to operate the first writer and the second writer based, the assigned parameters being based at least in part on the location of the set boundary.

15. A data storage device comprising:

a storage medium having a surface comprising a plurality of data zones; and

a boundary located along a radius of the surface, wherein the boundary divides the plurality of data zones into at least a first data zone group and a second data zone group, and functions as a transition point to selectively operate separate writers of a transducing head.

16. The data storage device of claim 15, wherein the boundary is located at a non-midpoint location along the radius of the surface.

17. The data storage device of claim 15, wherein the transducing head comprises a first writer configured to write data in the first data zone group and a second writer configured to write data in the second data zone group.

18. The data storage device of claim 17, and further comprising at least one controller used to operate the first writer and the second writer, the at least one controller having assigned parameters based at least in part on the location of the boundary.

19. The data storage device of claim 15, wherein the location of boundary along the radius of the surface increases data storage capacity of the storage medium relative to data storage capacities of the storage medium attainable by setting the boundary at other locations along the radius of the surface.

20. The data storage device of claim 15, wherein the location of the boundary along the radius of surface is based on writing capabilities of a plurality of writers.