Patent ID: 7428612
Filing Date: 2008-09-23
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A magnetic disk drive comprising: a magnetic disk for storing information; a buffer memory for temporarily storing information read from said magnetic disk; and a control processor capable of checking and rewriting the contents of said buffer memory; wherein when said control processor has received from a host device an erase command to write a command-specified unit of data to each address in a specified address range or the entire address range, said control processor registers said address range or said entire address range in a table set in said buffer memory and then notifies said host device of completion of execution of said erase command; wherein upon receiving a read command from said host device after having notified said host device of said completion of said execution of said erase command, said control processor performs; comparing said address range registered in said table and an address range specified by said read command as being targeted for a read operation; and if said comparison indicates that there is an overlap between said address range registered in said table and said address range specified by said read command, writing a unit of data to said buffer memory, said unit of data being specified by said erase command; and transferring said written unit of data to said host device as information on the overlapping address range portion.