Patent ID: 6868515

Claim:
A method of transferring data between a read/write transducer coupled to a data channel and a data storage medium, the method comprising: encoding a first plurality of data blocks of a data field according to a first coding constraint for storage on the data storage medium, the data blocks having a predetermined block size and the data field comprising a last data block that can store a number of data bytes fewer than that accommodated by the block size of the last data block; discontinuing use of the first coding constraint in response to detecting a start of the last data block; encoding the last data block according to a second coding constraint for storage on the data storage medium such that no pad bytes are required to complete encoding of the last data block; decoding the first plurality of data blocks transferred from the data storage medium according to the first coding constraint; and in response to detecting the start of the last data block, decoding the last data block transferred from the data storage medium according to the second coding constraint.