Patent ID: 6992854

Claim:
A disk drive comprising: a data storage disk having a plurality of substantially concentric tracks, each of said plurality of substantially concentric tracks having a plurality of servo sectors and a plurality of customer data regions distributed therein, said plurality of servo sectors including data that is recorded at a first frequency and said plurality of customer data regions including data that is recorded at a second frequency that is different from said first frequency, wherein at least one of said customer data regions on said data storage disk includes a dedicated portion for storing overhead data corresponding to multiple servo sectors on said data storage disk and wherein said at least one customer data region is located on a different track from said multiple servo sectors, said overhead data being recorded at said second frequency; a spin motor for rotating said data storage disk about an axis; a transducer for use in transferring data between said data storage disk and an exterior environment; an actuator assembly coupled to said transducer for use in moving said transducer to a target track of said data storage disk to perform a data transfer with the target track, said actuator assembly including an actuator arm for supporting said transducer and a motor unit for controllably moving said actuator arm in response to a control signal; and a controller for controlling the operation of said disk drive, said controller receiving said overhead data after it has been read by said transducer, storing said overhead data in a buffer memory, and subsequently using a portion of said overhead data stored in said buffer memory in response to traversal of one of said multiple servo sectors on said disk by said transducer to enhance disk drive performance.