Patent ID: 6710952
Filing Date: 2004-03-23
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
A method for gracefully relinquishing a computer hard disk drive from imminent failure, comprising the steps of:(a) providing the disk drive with a base, a motor having a rotatable spindle, a plurality of media disks mounted to the spindle in the base, an actuator pivotally mounted in the base with a bead for interacting with each of the disks; (b) monitoring conditions and stability of head-disk interfaces in the base; (c) sensing a degradation in at least one of the head-disk interfaces such that failure of the drive is imminent; and then (d) prolonging the onset of failure of the disk drive by increasing pressure in the base such that a fly height of the heads above the media disks is increased in response to the degradation in said at least one of the head-disk interfaces in order to transfer data saved on the disks to an alternate storage medium before the data is permanently lost and cannot be retrieved from the disks.