Patent ID: 9720820
Date: 2017-08-01
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A data storage device, comprising: a FLASH memory; and a controller, for management of a spare queue for the FLASH memory, blocks within the spare queue are entirely-erased, wherein: the controller further manages a jail queue to freeze blocks whose erase counts are greater than an overused higher threshold; the controller performs a garbage collection operation with wear leveling when the blocks within the spare queue are less than a clean threshold, any block within the spare queue has an erase count greater than an overused lower threshold, and both of the following two specific conditions are; wherein: one of the two specific conditions shows that the blocks frozen within the jail queue are more than a predetermined amount and another of the two specific condition shows that the FLASH memory is in a power-cycle routine; and when performing the garbage collection operation with wear leveling, the controller selects one block from higher erase count blocks in the spare queue to collect valid data.