Patent ID: 8065469

Claim:
A method for extending the service life of a data storage device, the method comprising: performing a physical block erasure on a first physical block in a memory, wherein the memory comprises a plurality of logical zones, and each logical zone comprises a plurality of physical blocks; tracking the physical block erasure by incrementally increasing a first erase count, wherein a master lookup table block comprises a plurality of lookup table blocks and stores an erase count indicator for each lookup table block, each lookup table block being associated with a logical zone and comprising a plurality of entries, and each entry being associated with a logical block and comprising an erase count for a physical block corresponding to that logical block; determining an actual erase count for the first physical block; and exchanging the entry for a logical block corresponding to the first physical block with another entry within a different lookup table block when the actual erase count for the first physical block exceeds a threshold, the different lookup table block having a lower erase count indicator relative to that of the lookup table block comprising the entry for the logical block corresponding to the first physical block.