Hard disk drive infant mortality test

• US 6,408,406 B1
• Filed: 08/31/1999
• Issued: 06/18/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Western Digital Corporation
• Original Assignee: Western Digital Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Parris, Craig A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoleil, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): DUNCAN, MARC M
• Application Number:
  US09/387,677
• Time in Patent Office: 1,022 Days
• Field of Search: 714/25, 714/32, 714/33, 714/36, 714/42, 714/40, 714/47, 714/37, 714/38, 714/54, 714/723, 714/718, 714/719, 714/736, 702/182, 702/183, 702/187
• US Class Current: 714/41
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/182 using test patterns

Abstract

A functional test for determining whether a hard disk drive has experienced an early-life failure. The test retrieves values of a selected set of stored historical performance parameters of the hard disk drive, then compares the retrieved values against a set of associated performance thresholds. If any of the selected set of stored historical performance parameters exceeds the associated performance threshold, the hard disk drive is marked as defective. The test also performs a set of non-destructive read/write tests to selected regions of the hard disk drive, generating a set of results. The non-destructive read/write test results are then compared against an associated performance threshold. If the results of the non-destructive read/write tests exceed the associated performance threshold, the hard disk drive is marked as defective. If neither the hard disk drive'"'"'s historical performance parameters nor the results from the read/write tests exceed the associated performance thresholds, the hard disk drive is marked as functional.

Claims

1. A method of functionally testing a potentially defective disk drive having data sites on a disk for recording data thereon, the disk drive storing a plurality of historical performance parameters for continuously logging problems during the operation of the disk drive, the method comprising the steps of:

performing an analysis of stored historical performance parameters, comprising the steps of;

defining a set of performance thresholds associated with each of the plurality of stored historical performance parameters;

retrieving the stored plurality of historical performance parameters;

comparing the value of each of the plurality of historical performance parameters against its associated performance threshold; and

marking the disk drive as a failed disk drive if the value of the historical performance parameter exceeds the associated performance threshold, else performing a set of non-destructive read/write tests to selected regions of the disk, comprising the steps of;

defining a set of performance thresholds associated with each of the sets of non-destructive read/write tests;

running the set of non-destructive read/write tests, generating a set of results;

comparing the results of each of the non-destructive read/write tests against the associated performance threshold; and

marking the disk drive as a failed disk drive if the results of the non-destructive read/write tests exceed the associated performance threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the functional testing method retrieves a power-on time parameter value from the disk drive, compares the power-on time parameter value against a user defined threshold value, and if power-on time parameter value exceeds the user defined threshold value, the functional test is terminated.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the power-on time parameter value is 600 hours.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the functional testing method includes issuing commands to the disk drive which are compliant with SCSI-3 specifications.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of historical performance parameters include counts of soft error rates and reassignments.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of historical performance parameters include counts of corrected and uncorrected errors encountered during read, write, and verify operations to the disk drive.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of historical performance parameters includes the number of entries found on the grown defect list (GLIST).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of non-destructive read/write tests includes a read/write test of a known pattern to all disk drive heads in a non-customer data area.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of non-destructive read/write tests includes a verification test of the first 100 megabytes of data on the disk drive.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a function is provided for obtaining the data capacity and maximum logical block address (LBA) of the disk drive under test.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein an inner diameter zone region of the disk drive is defined by the range of logical block addresses from (maximum LBA/8)*5 to maximum LBA.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein an outer diameter zone region of the disk drive is defined by the range of logical block addresses from 0 to (maximum LBA/8).

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the set of non-destructive read/write tests includes a series of random inner diameter zone region/outer diameter zone region read and seek tests.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each series of random inner diameter zone region/outer diameter zone region read and seek tests comprises:

a random read operation to an inner diameter zone region LBA, followed by a random read operation to an outer diameter zone region LBA, followed by a seek to a random inner diameter zone region LBA, followed by a seek to a random outer zone region LBA.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the time required to functionally test the disk drive is independent of the capacity of the drive.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the time required to functionally test the disk drive is approximately 2 minutes.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the functional testing method retrieves a manufacturer name from the disk drive, compares the retrieved manufacturer name against one or more user supplied manufacturer names, and terminates the functional test if the retrieved manufacturer name does not match any of the one or more user supplied manufacturer names.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the functional test resides in software.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the functional test resides in firmware.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the disk drive is a SCSI disk drive.