Patent ID: 6965966

Claim:
A disk drive comprising: (a) a disk comprising a plurality of tracks, each track comprising a plurality of blocks and a plurality of embedded servo sectors recorded at a predetermined interval; (b) a head actuated radially over the disk; and (c) a disk controller for: executing a first command by reading read data from a selected one of the tracks and executing a read-ahead operation by reading read-ahead data from the disk following the read data; pre-computing first seek parameters to seek the head to a continuation track storing at least part of the read-ahead data; computing an abort window in response to a second command for aborting the read-ahead operation of the first command; pre-computing second seek parameters to seek the head to a target track of the second command; processing the embedded servo sectors to detect when the head enters the abort window; if the head enters the abort window, programming the disk drive with the second seek parameters to seek the head to the target track of the second command; and if the read-ahead operation requires a seek to the continuation track prior to the head entering the abort window, programming the disk drive with the first seek parameters to seek the head to the continuation track.