Patent ID: 6078453
Filing Date: 2000-06-20
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
In a disk drive having a head mounted on an actuator, a preamplifier for amplifying signals from the head, a read channel for conditioning the signals using parameters, a disk having a plurality of tracks, each track having multiple sequentially active servo sectors, a sampled signal head positioning servo controller to control the actuator position, a microprocessor, and a memory, a method of deriving optimum read channel parameters for use in reading servo sector data, the method comprising:a) providing a table of read channel parameters having default values;b) providing a table of read channel parameters having variable values;c) defining a set of servo errors detectable by the microprocessor;d) applying the table of default values to the read channel to set default read channel operating parameters;e) performing a series of seeks in alternating directions over a band of tracks and while performing the seeks:i. setting a predetermined read channel parameter to a predetermined variable value from the group of read channel parameters having variable values for a first set of alternating servo sectors;ii. applying the table of default values to the read channel for a second set of alternating servo sectors;iii. logging the servo errors which occur during the series of seeks;f) repeating step e) for each of a predetermined matrix of values selected from the table of read channel parameter variable values; andg) selecting the read channel parameter values having the least errors logged to form a table of optimized read channel parameter values for reading servo sectors and wherein the table of optimized read channel parameters is stored in the disk drive.