Patent ID: 7440214
Filing Date: 2008-10-21
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
1. A disk drive, comprising: a disk having a magnetic data storage surface with embedded servo wedges for defining data storage tracks including at least one reserve tracks; a spindle motor, responsive to a spindle control current, for rotating the magnetic disk; a transducer head for writing disk data to and reading disk data from the magnetic disk; an actuator, responsive to a position control signal, for positioning the transducer head over the magnetic data storage surface; a cache memory for caching disk data; a microprocessor for executing program code; a masked read only memory (ROM) device storing program code for implementing a spindle motor controller that defines the spindle motor current, for implementing a portion of a servo controller for defining the position control signal for track following along a data storage track, and for implementing a portion of a disk controller for controlling writing disk data to and reading disk data from the at least one reserve track; and a reprogrammable nonvolatile memory device storing data parameters relating to the disk drive's configuration; wherein the at least one reserve track stores program code for implementing a cache control system for controlling caching of disk data in the cache memory wherein the data parameters relating to the disk drive's configuration include servo and spindle operating parameters.