Patent ID: 6101619
Filing Date: 2000-08-08
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
A method for improving data access operation of a hard disk drive, comprising the steps of:determining whether a track of a recording medium written on and read by said hard disk drive contains a defective sector;when the track of the recording medium contains said defective sector, re-allocating said defective sector with a re-allocation sector from a re-allocation area of said recording medium;identifying as normal sectors any sector of the recording medium that is not determined to be a defective sector;using a primary buffer pointer and a secondary buffer pointer within a memory of said hard disk drive to access all normal sectors of the recording medium, by using said primary buffer pointer to access all sectors of the recording medium preceding said defective sector and using said secondary buffer pointer to access all sectors of the recording medium following said defective sector; andwhen the track containing said defective sector is being accessed during one of a read and a write operation, accessing all normal sectors of said track except for said defective sector, and then, accessing said re-allocation sector and replacing said defective sector.