System and method for gracefully relinquishing a computer hard disk drive from imminent catastrophic failure

• US 6,680,806 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2002
• Issued: 01/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: HGST Netherlands B.V. (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands BV (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Smith, Gordon James
• Primary Examiner(s): Sniezek, Andrew L.
• Application Number:
  US10/260,809
• Publication Number:
  US 20030026019A1
• Time in Patent Office: 477 Days
• Field of Search: 360/25, 360/31, 360/75, 360/97.02, 360/97.03, 360/97.04, 360/77.02, 711/69, 711/113, 711/114, 714/6, 714/718
• US Class Current: 360/31
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/04 Arrangements for preventing, inhibiting, or warning against double recording on the same blank or against other recording or reproducing malfunctions
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2005/001 Controlling recording characteristics of record carriers or transducing characteristics of transducers by means not being part of their structure
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/012 Recording on, or reproducing or erasing from, magnetic disks G11B17/00, G11B19/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/58 with provision for moving the head for the purpose of maintaining alignment of the head relative to the record carrier during transducing operation, e.g. to compensate for surface irregularities of the latter or for track following spacing means incorporated in the head structure G11B5/187, G11B5/255, G11B5/3106

Abstract

A computer hard disk drive has a drive controller that monitors the condition of the head-disk interface within the drive. In response to sensing a degradation of the head-disk interface, the drive prolongs the onset of failure by selectively altering performance parameters. In one embodiment, the internal pressure of the drive is increased to allow the air bearing surfaces of the heads to achieve a greater flying height above the surfaces of their respective disks, thereby delaying the onset of a catastrophic head-disk interface failure. In other embodiments, the spindle rotation rate and/or the slider head access rate are decreased to avoid hastening the imminent failure. Measurements of the condition and stability of the head-disk interface inside the drives are made by monitoring data error rates, head flying height, or other performance variables.

Claims

1. A method for gracefully relinquishing a computer hard disk drive from imminent failure, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing the disk drive with a base, a motor having a rotatable spindle, a media disk mounted to the spindle in the base, an actuator pivotally mounted in the base with a head for interacting with the disk;

(b) monitoring a head-disk interface in the base;

(c) sensing a degradation in the head-disk interface; and

then

(d) prolonging the onset of failure in the disk drive by selectively altering performance parameters of the disk drive in order to transfer data saved on the disk to an alternate storage medium, which comprises increasing pressure in the base such that a fly height of the head above the media disk is increased in response to the degradation in the head-disk interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises sensing a reduction in a fly height of the head of approximately 50% or more from monitored flying height modulation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises sensing a reduction in a fly height of the head of approximately 50% or more from monitored radial track misregistration.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein gas pressure is increased in step (d) by use of a pressurizing means.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the gas pressure is increased in step (d) by a pump selected from the group consisting of a compressor, a vacuum pump, and a vessel of pressurized gas.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the gas pressure is increased in step (d) by assembling the disk drive with the interior gas pressure below ambient atmospheric pressure and selectively venting ambient atmosphere into the disk drive through a vent-type mechanism.

7. A method for gracefully relinquishing a computer hard disk drive from imminent failure, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing the disk drive with a base, a motor having a rotatable spindle, a media disk mounted to the spindle in the base, an actuator pivotally mounted in the base with a head for interacting with the disk;

(b) monitoring a head-disk interface in the base;

(c) sensing a degradation in the head-disk interface; and

then

(d) prolonging the onset of failure in the disk drive by selectively altering performance parameters of the disk drive in order to transfer data saved on the disk to an alternate storage medium, which comprises instructing a data channel to increase error recovery attempts in response to the degradation in the head-disk interface.

8. A method for gracefully relinquishing a computer hard disk drive from imminent failure, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing the disk drive with a base, a motor having a rotatable spindle, a media disk mounted to the spindle in the base, an actuator pivotally mounted in the base with a head for interacting with the disk;

(b) monitoring of a head-disk interface, which comprises monitoring the number and severity of thermal asperities;

(c) sensing a degradation in the head-disk interface; and

then

(d) prolonging the onset of failure in the disk drive by selectively altering performance parameters of the disk drive in order to transfer data saved on the disk to an alternate storage medium.

9. A method for gracefully relinquishing a computer hard disk drive from imminent failure, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing the disk drive with a base, a motor having a rotatable spindle, a media disk mounted to the spindle in the base, an actuator pivotally mounted in the base with a head for interacting with the disk;

(b) monitoring of a head-disk interface, which comprises monitoring the number of slider-disk contacts;

(c) sensing a degradation in the head-disk interface; and

then

(d) prolonging the onset of failure in the disk drive by selectively altering performance parameters of the disk drive in order to transfer data saved on the disk to an alternate storage medium.

10. A method for gracefully relinquishing a computer hard disk drive from imminent failure, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing the disk drive with a base, a motor having a rotatable spindle, a media disk mounted to the spindle in the base, an actuator pivotally mounted in the base with a head for interacting with the disk;

(b) monitoring of a head-disk interface, which comprises monitoring the power required for air bearing flying height modulation at specific frequencies;

(c) sensing a degradation in the head-disk interface; and

then

(d) prolonging the onset of failure in the disk drive by selectively altering performance parameters of the disk drive in order to transfer data saved on the disk to an alternate storage medium.

11. A rotating disk drive data storage device, comprising:

a disk drive base;

a motor mounted to the base and having a rotatable spindle;

a media disk mounted to the spindle for recording data on at least one surface of the media disk;

a movable actuator supporting at least one transducer head, said actuator positioning said at least one transducer head to access data on said at least one surface of said media disk; and

a controller for controlling the operation of said disk drive data storage device and monitoring a head-disk interface therein, wherein said controller, in response to sensing a degradation of said head-disk interface, selectively alters at least one performance parameter of said disk drive data storage device in order to prolong the onset of failure, which causes internal pressure within the interior of said disk drive data storage device to increase such that a fly height of the transducer head above the surface of the media disk is increased.

12. The rotating disk drive data storage device of claim 11, wherein said controller senses a degradation of said head-disk interface by sensing a change in at least one fly height characteristic of said transducer head from monitored flying height modulation and radial track misregistration.

13. The rotating disk drive data storage device of claim 11, wherein said controller further senses a degradation of said head-disk interface by monitoring data error rates.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein gas pressure is increased by use of a pressurizing means.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the gas pressure is increased by a pump selected from the group consisting of a compressor, a vacuum pump, and a vessel of pressurized gas.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the gas pressure is increased by assembling the disk drive with the interior gas pressure below ambient atmospheric pressure and selectively venting ambient atmosphere into the disk drive through a vent-type mechanism.

17. A rotating disk drive data storage device, comprising:

a disk drive base;

a motor mounted to the base and having a rotatable spindle;

a media disk mounted to the spindle for recording data on at least one surface of the media disk;

a movable actuator supporting at least one transducer head, said actuator positioning said at least one transducer head to access data on said at least one surface of said media disk; and

a controller for controlling the operation of said disk drive data storage device and monitoring a head-disk interface therein, wherein said controller, in response to sensing a degradation of said head-disk interface, increases error recovery attempts of said disk drive data storage device in order to prolong the onset of failure.

18. A rotating disk drive data storage device, comprising:

a disk drive base;

a motor mounted to the base and having a rotatable spindle;

a media disk mounted to the spindle for recording data on at least one surface of the media disk;

a movable actuator supporting at least one transducer head, said actuator positioning said at least one transducer head to access data on said at least one surface of said media disk; and

a controller for controlling the operation of said disk drive data storage device and monitoring a head-disk interface therein, wherein said controller senses a degradation of said head-disk interface by monitoring the power required for air bearing flying height modulation at specific frequencies in order to prolong the onset of failure.

19. A rotating disk drive data storage device, comprising:

a disk drive base;

a motor mounted to the base and having a rotatable spindle;

a media disk mounted to the spindle for recording data on at least one surface of the media disk;

a movable actuator supporting at least one transducer head, said actuator positioning said at least one transducer head to access data on said at least one surface of said media disk; and

a controller for controlling the operation of said disk drive data storage device and monitoring a head-disk interface therein, wherein said controller senses a degradation of said head-disk interface by monitoring at least one of the set consisting of (a) the number of thermal asperities, (b) the severity of thermal asperities, and (c) the number of head-disk contacts in order to prolong the onset of failure.