Patent ID: 8390949

Claim:
A data storage system comprising: a hard disk drive (HDD), the HDD including: a rotatable media platter operable to receive and store data; a read/write head operable to communicate with the media platter by writing data to the media platter and by reading the data from the media platter; an arm supporting the read/write head; a motor coupled to the arm and operable to move the arm to and from the media platter; a drive controller operable to control the media platter, the read/write head and the servo motor, wherein the drive controller is configured to receive an interrupt trigger signal and, in response, perform an emergency routine to cache data and park the read/write head away from the media platter; a general purpose input/output (GPIO) terminal coupled to the drive controller; and a data interface terminal coupled to the drive controller; wherein the HDD is configured to receive a query for drive identification and, in response, provide a drive identifier; and a fall sensor communicatively coupled to the drive controller and configured to send the interrupt trigger signal to the drive controller when the drive is detected as falling, wherein the interrupt trigger signal is sent via the GPIO terminal when the drive identifier indicates that the HDD is in a first free fall sense mode, and wherein the interrupt trigger signal is sent via the data interface terminal when the drive identifier indicates that the HDD is in a second free fall sense mode.