Patent ID: 7733590

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a processing module; and a memory, coupled to the processing module, that is operable to store operational instructions that enable the processing module to: determine a plurality of minimum distance measurements that corresponds to each respective sync mark pattern of a plurality of sync mark patterns as applied to each chunk phase of a first preamble composed of a plurality of repeated, successive chunk phases that is followed by a duplicate of the respective sync mark pattern within a first frame of data; identify a maximum valued minimum distance measurement within the plurality of minimum distance measurements; identify a sync mark pattern of the plurality of sync mark patterns that corresponds to the identified maximum valued minimum distance measurement; place the identified sync mark pattern within a second frame of data to indicate a boundary between a second preamble and a data portion within the second frame of data; and write the second frame of data to or read the second frame of data from a storage media of a hard disk drive (HDD).