Patent ID: 7672200

Claim:
A method of inter-layer search in a disk drive to drive a multi-layer disk, the method comprising: determining whether the search requires a focus jump between a superior layer with a superior priority in recording and an inferior layer with an inferior priority in recording compared to the superior layer; searching the superior layer for a position corresponding to a target address on the inferior layer in response to the search requiring moving the focal point from the superior layer to the inferior layer, the position corresponding to the target address on the inferior layer being a position having an address on the superior layer equal to that of the target address on the inferior layer; performing the focus jump to the inferior layer after searching the superior layer for the corresponding position if the search is determined to require a focus jump from the superior layer to the inferior layer; and performing the focus jump to the superior layer from the inferior layer and performing a searching of the superior layer for the target position, without a searching of the inferior layer for a position corresponding to the target position in the inferior layer, if the search is determined to require a focus jump from the inferior layer to the superior layer.