Patent ID: 6327106
Filing Date: 2001-12-04
Classification: G06F,G11B

Abstract:
A method of operating a disk drive that includes a disk comprising a data track comprising a plurality of data sectors, the method comprising the steps of:providing a firmware-controlled state machine which can be in any of a plurality of states including an active state and an off-line in-progress state;while the state machine is in the active state, writing user data in response to a host command to a selected data sector of the data track;while the state machine is in the off-line in progress state, performing a firmware-controlled scan of the plurality of data sectors;while performing the firmware-controlled scan:identifying a marginal data sector of the data track;executing a plurality of data-recovery firmware procedures including a first data-recovery firmware procedure and a second data-recovery firmware procedure;performing a write-verify procedure on the marginal data sector if the first data-recovery firmware procedure is successful in recovering data from the marginal data sector;relocating the marginal data sector if the write-verify procedure fails; andinhibiting relocation of the marginal data sector if the second data-recovery firmware procedure is successful in recovering data from the marginal data sector.