Metadata recovery in a disk drive

• US 8,612,706 B1
• Filed: 12/21/2011
• Issued: 12/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: Western Digital Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Madril, Abedon, Carlson, Marcus A., Pruett, David C., Neppalli, Srinivas
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HIEP T
• Application Number:
  US13/333,657
• Time in Patent Office: 727 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1441 Resetting or repowering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/104 Metadata, i.e. metadata associated with RAID systems with parity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1071 Power loss, i.e. interrupted writes due to power loss in a RAID system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0638 Organizing or formatting or addressing of data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0676 Magnetic disk device

Abstract

A disk drive subsystem is disclosed that implements a process for metadata recovery. Certain embodiments relate to recovery of metadata containing information indicating the physical locations in the disk drive in which host data is stored. In an embodiment, the metadata to be recovered is disposed in sequence with, or in physical association with host data that it describes. Recovery is accomplished by identifying metadata that is valid, but is absent from one or more translation tables containing translation information. Metadata portion can include one or more identifiers that are sequentially related to identifiers included in one or more other metadata portions. Performance improvements can thereby be attained.

Claims

1. A method of recovering metadata information stored in a disk drive device comprising a plurality of zones, each zone comprising a plurality of tracks configured to store one or more write-logs containing metadata, the method comprising:

determining a physical address for a first write-log of a first type, wherein the physical address of the first write-log of the first type is located in a first zone;

determining a physical address for a second write-log of the first type, wherein the physical address of the second write-log of the first type is located in the first zone;

determining whether the second write-log is associated with a last write operation received from a host system prior to a power loss event; and

adding the second write-log of the first type to a list of recovered write-logs associated with the first zone;

wherein the method is performed by the disk drive device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the second write-log of the first type is valid.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

when it is determined that the second write-log of the first type is not valid, determining a physical address for a third write-log of the first type; and

determining whether the third write-log is valid.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising confirming that a predetermined number of write-logs subsequent to the third write-log are invalid when it is determined that the second write-log of the first type is not valid.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether the second write-log of the first type is valid comprises determining whether the second write-log includes a valid write-log signature.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining whether the second write-log includes a valid write-log signature comprises determining whether the second write-log includes a value associated with an identifier that is unique across the plurality of zones.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the second write-log is associated with the last write operation received from the host system prior to the power loss event comprises determining that a third write log is not valid.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second write-log of the first type is sequentially ordered after the first write-log in the list of recovered write-logs.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising attempting to locate a write-log of a second type on a track on which the second write-log of the first type is located when it is determined that the second write-log is associated with the last write operation received from the host system prior to the power loss event.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising adding the write-log of the second type to the list of recovered write-logs when the write-log of a second type is located on the track.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising attempting to locate a write-log of a third type on the track.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein attempting to locate the write-log of the third type comprises:

when the write-log of the second type is located on the track, scanning a first portion of the track, and

when the write-log of the second type is not located on the track, scanning a second portion of the track separate from the first portion.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the first write-log of the first type is a header write-log, the write-log of the second type is a halftrack write-log, and the write-log of the third type is a footer write-log.

14. A method of storing metadata information on a data track located within a first zone of a non-volatile storage medium, the method comprising:

receiving host data from a host system;

storing a first write-log of a first type in a first metadata portion of the data track; and

storing a write-log of a second type in a second metadata portion of the data track;

wherein each write-log includes or is stored in association with;

a first identifier that is unique across at least the first zone and a second zone of the non-volatile storage medium, and

a second identifier that is unique within the first zone.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising storing a write-log of a third type in a third metadata portion of the data track.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the first metadata portion of the data track is located substantially at the head of the data track and the second metadata portion of the data track is located substantially at a mid-point of the data track.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein each write-log further comprises a third identifier that identifies either the first write-log of the first type, or a second write-log of the first type.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the third identifier of the write-log of the second type identifies the first write-log of the first type.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the third identifier of the write-log of the third type identifies the first write-log of the first type.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the third identifier of the first write-log of the first type identifies the second write-log of the first type.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein the first identifier of the write-log of the second type comprises a first value that is sequential with respect to the first identifier of the first write-log of the first type, and the second identifier of the write-log of the second type comprises a second value that is sequential with respect to the second identifier of the first write-log of the first type.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the first identifier of the write-log of the third type is incrementally greater than the first identifier of the write-log of the second type, and the second identifier of the write-log of the third type is incrementally greater than the second identifier of the write-log of the second type.

23. A disk drive comprising:

a magnetic storage medium comprising a plurality of zones, each zone comprising a plurality of tracks configured to store one or more write-logs containing metadata; and

a controller configured to;

determine a physical address for a first write-log of a first type, wherein the physical address of the first write-log of the first type is located in a first zone;

determine a physical address for a second write-log of the first type, wherein the physical address of the second write-log of the first type is located in the first zone;

determine whether the second write-log is associated with a last write operation received from a host system prior to a power loss event; and

add the second write-log of the first type to a list of recovered write-logs associated with the first zone.

24. The disk drive of claim 23, wherein the controller is further configured to attempt to locate a write-log of a second type on a track on which the second write-log of the first type is located when it is determined that the second write-log is associated with the last write operation received from the host system prior to the power loss event.

25. The disk drive of claim 24, wherein the controller is further configured to add the write-log of the second type to the list of recovered write-logs when the write-log of a second type is located on the track.

26. The disk drive of claim 24, wherein the controller is further configured to attempt to locate a write-log of a third type on the track.

27. The disk drive of claim 26, wherein the controller attempts to locate the write-log of the third type by:

when the write-log of the second type is located on the track, scanning a first portion of the track, and

when the write-log of the second type is not located on the track, scanning a second portion of the track separate from the first portion.