Patent ID: 7433149

Claim:
A disk drive comprising: a data storage disk having a plurality of substantially concentric tracks, each of said tracks having a plurality of servo sectors and a plurality of customer data regions distributed therein, said plurality of servo sectors including data that is recorded at a first frequency and a plurality of customer data regions including data that is recorded at a second frequency different from said first frequency, wherein at least one of said customer data regions on said data storage disk includes a dedicated portion for storing overhead data corresponding to multiple servo sectors on said data storage disk, said overhead data being recorded at said second frequency and including servo sector identification information; and a controller which receives said overhead data after it has been read by a transducer, stores said overhead data in a buffer memory, and subsequently uses a portion of said overhead data stored in said buffer memory in response to traversal of one of said multiple servo sectors on said disk by said transducer to enhance disk drive performance.