Patent ID: 8332574

Claim:
A method of storing data, comprising: in a data storage device with a memory that includes a plurality of blocks, performing: evaluating a data writing schedule to determine whether user data is to be written to multiple pages of a block; in response to determining that the data writing schedule indicates that the user data is to be written to multiple pages of the block, storing a metadatum in the memory as a block-specific metadatum, wherein an initial value of the block-specific metadatum associated with a first page of the multiple pages is written to the memory when the first page is written to the block, wherein a second page of the multiple pages is written to the block after the first page without storing an additional metadatum in the memory; and in response to determining that the data writing schedule indicates that the user data is to be written to a single page of the block, storing the metadatum in the memory as a page-specific metadatum.