Patent ID: 6892313

Claim:
A method for operating a disk drive in a mobile device wherein, immediately after responding to a disk access command, the disk drive is in a first operating mode that consumes a relatively high level of power and may transition to a second operating mode that consumes a relatively low level of power, the method comprising the steps of: setting first and second time period thresholds, the first time period threshold being less than the second time period threshold; providing an adjustable delay time interval that is set to correspond to one of the time period thresholds, the delay time interval being the time interval for waiting after an end of a response to a disk access command before transitioning from the first operating mode to the second operating mode; measuring a demand time interval for each of a plurality of disk access commands, wherein each demand time interval is defined as a time period between an end of a response to a last disk access command and an arrival of a next disk access command; setting the delay time interval to be equal to about the first time period threshold if a majority of a predetermined number of the plurality of demand time intervals falls within a time period less than the first time period threshold or a time period greater than the second time period threshold; setting the delay time interval to be equal to about the second time period threshold if a majority of a predetermined number of the plurality of demand time intervals falls within a time period between the first time period threshold and the second time period threshold; and transitioning the disk drive from the first operating mode to the second operating mode after expiration of the delay time interval.