System and method for writing data to dedicated bands of a hard disk drive

• US 7,490,212 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2003
• Issued: 02/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2003
• 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: Kasiraj, Prakash, New, Richard M. H., Williams, Mason Lamar, de Souza, Jorge Campello
• Primary Examiner(s): PEIKARI, BEHZAD
• Application Number:
  US10/674,093
• Publication Number:
  US 20050069298A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,961 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/172
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1217 on discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/1238 track, i.e. the entire a spirally or concentrically arranged path on which the recording marks are located
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/1298 Enhancement of the signal quality
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2516 Hard disks
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/65 wherein solid state memory is used for storing indexing information or metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/012 Recording on, or reproducing or erasing from, magnetic disks G11B17/00, G11B19/00 take precedence

Abstract

Data is written to a hard disk drive using shingled writing principles, i.e., each data track is partially overwritten when an immediately contiguous data track is written. Two or more contiguous data tracks establish a band, and a band may store data from one and only one file, such as an AV file.

Claims

1. A hard disk drive, comprising:

(a) disk storage means for holding data in at least one of;

(i) bands comprising a plurality of tracks and

(ii) isolated tracks;

(b) means for writing data to said disk storage means;

(c) means for controlling said means for writing data such that data from one and only one file or AV stream is written to a band on the disk storage means such that if a last allocated band for a file or AV stream is only partially full when said file or AV stream has been completely written to the storage means, then the remaining space is not used;

wherein the means for controlling cause the means for writing to write shingled tracks.

2. The HDD of claim 1, wherein the means for writing is configured for perpendicular recording.

3. The HDD of claim 1, wherein a first band has a fist number of tracks and a second band has a second number of tracks different from the first.

4. The HDD of claim 1, wherein the disk storage means is partitioned into isolated tracks and bands of tracks.

5. The HDD of claim 1, wherein audio video (AV) data is stored in at least one band.

6. The HDD of claim 5, wherein the sizes of bands are larger than an AV transaction block size.

7. The HDD of claim 1, wherein the means for controlling stores, for each file or AV data stream, a list of bands associated therewith.