Patent ID: 8498074

Claim:
A disk drive comprising: a disk comprising a plurality of tracks, wherein each track comprises a plurality of data sectors and a plurality of servo sectors; a head actuated over the disk; and control circuitry operable to: receive a plurality of access commands from a host, wherein each access command identifies a target track; store the access commands in a command queue; generate an access cost for at least a first and second access command in the command queue, wherein each access cost comprises a seek length and a rotation latency; and choose a next access command to execute from the command queue by: selecting a first access command from the command queue having a first access cost; defining a window relative to the first access cost and a first risk based penalty (RBP) of the first access command, wherein the first RBP represents a probability of missing a first data sector of the first access command; selecting a second access command from the command queue comprising a second access cost within the window; and choosing between the first access command and the second access command in response to a second RBP of the second access command, wherein the second RBP represents a probability of missing a first data sector of the second access command.