US6204660B1 — Method of varying capacity of head disk drive dur…

Claim 1

Independent Claim 80 words

A method of varying the capacity of a hard disk drive, having a plurality of head/disk combinations, during a manufacturing process, comprising the steps of: scanning disk surfaces of all of the head/disk combinations to detect defects; determining a head/disk combination to be defective if the number of defects detected from a disk surface of the head/disk combination in the defect scanning step exceeds a reference defect number for each head/disk combination; and eliminating from usage each defective head/disk combination.

Claim 2

Independent Claim 80 words

A method of varying the capacity of a hard disk drive, having a plurality of head/disk combinations, during a manufacturing process, comprising the steps of: scanning disk surfaces of all of the head/disk combinations to detect defects; determining a head/disk combination to be defective if the number of defects detected from a disk surface of the head/disk combination in the defect scanning step exceeds a reference defect number for each head/disk combination; and eliminating from usage each defective head/disk combination.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 36 words

A method of varying the capacity of a hard disk drive during a manufacturing process as claimed in claim 1 , the defect scanning step comprising scanning both servo and data fields of the disk surfaces.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 45 words

A method of varying the capacity of a hard disk drive during a manufacturing process as claimed in claim 1 , information on each defective head/disk combination being recorded on one of a maintenance zone of a disk surface and a flash read only memory.

Claim 5

Independent Claim 66 words

A method of varying the capacity of a hard disk drive, having a plurality of head/disk combinations, during a manufacturing process, comprising the steps of: performing a performance test on each of the head/disk combinations; determining a head/disk combination to be defective if the performance test result of the head/disk combination is smaller than a reference performance value; and eliminating from usage each defective head/disk combination.

Claim 6

Independent Claim 66 words

A method of varying the capacity of a hard disk drive, having a plurality of head/disk combinations, during a manufacturing process, comprising the steps of: performing a performance test on each of the head/disk combinations; determining a head/disk combination to be defective if the performance test result of the head/disk combination is smaller than a reference performance value; and eliminating from usage each defective head/disk combination.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 42 words

A method of varying the capacity of a hard disk drive during a manufacturing process as claimed in claim 4 , the performance test comprising at least one of an error rate test, a track squeeze test, and an off-track margin test.

Claim 8

Independent Claim 243 words

A method of varying the capacity of a hard disk drive, having a plurality of head/disk combinations, during a manufacturing process, comprising the steps of: scanning, servo fields of disk surfaces of all of the head/disk combinations to detect defects; determining position and number of servo defects of each head/disk combination; determining whether the number of detected servo defects is greater than a predetermined servo defect reference number; upon the number of detected servo defects being greater than the servo defect reference number, determining if the defects exist only in a specific disk surface and if not, determining the hard disk drive to be totally defective and if so, eliminating the head/disk combinations having the defective disk surface from usage; scanning data fields of disk surfaces of all of the head/disk combinations to detect scan defects; determining the number of scan defects; determining whether the number of detected scan defects is greater than a predetermined scan defect reference number; upon the number of detected scan defects being greater than the scan defect reference number, determining whether the scan defects exist in a specific disk surface and if not, determining the hard disk drive to be totally defective and if so, eliminating from usage the head/disk combination having the defective disk surface; determining the overall capacity of the hard disk drive; and recording information on the determined capacity in one of a maintenance zone of a disk surface and a flash read only memory.

Claim 9

Independent Claim 243 words

A method of varying the capacity of a hard disk drive, having a plurality of head/disk combinations, during a manufacturing process, comprising the steps of: scanning, servo fields of disk surfaces of all of the head/disk combinations to detect defects; determining position and number of servo defects of each head/disk combination; determining whether the number of detected servo defects is greater than a predetermined servo defect reference number; upon the number of detected servo defects being greater than the servo defect reference number, determining if the defects exist only in a specific disk surface and if not, determining the hard disk drive to be totally defective and if so, eliminating the head/disk combinations having the defective disk surface from usage; scanning data fields of disk surfaces of all of the head/disk combinations to detect scan defects; determining the number of scan defects; determining whether the number of detected scan defects is greater than a predetermined scan defect reference number; upon the number of detected scan defects being greater than the scan defect reference number, determining whether the scan defects exist in a specific disk surface and if not, determining the hard disk drive to be totally defective and if so, eliminating from usage the head/disk combination having the defective disk surface; determining the overall capacity of the hard disk drive; and recording information on the determined capacity in one of a maintenance zone of a disk surface and a flash read only memory.

Claim 10

Independent Claim 281 words

A method of varying the capacity of a hard disk drive, having a plurality of head/disk combinations, during a manufacturing process, comprising the steps of: measuring error rate and performing performance tests on each head/disk combination; determining if the error rate is greater than a predetermined reference error rate; upon the error rate being determined to be greater than the reference error rate, determining whether only a specific head/disk combination has failed to meet the reference error rate and if so eliminating from usage each head/disk combination corresponding to the defective disk surface and if not, determining whether only two head/disk combinations fail to meet the reference error rate and if not, determining the hard disk drive to be totally defective and if so, eliminating from usage the two head/disk combinations corresponding to the two defective disk surfaces; determining the capacity of the hard disk drive; recording information on the determined capacity in one of a maintenance zone of a disk surface and a flash read only memory; changing a mode for a corresponding capacity upon determining that a mode must be changed for the determined capacity; performing a test sequence; and determining if all disk surfaces have been used and if so, determining the drive capacity to be a first predetermined value, and if not, determining if one head/disk combination has been eliminated from usage and if so, determining the hard disk drive capacity to be a second predetermined value and if not, determining if two head/disk combinations have been eliminating from usage and if so, determining the hard disk drive capacity to be a third predetermined value and if not, determining the hard disk drive to be totally defective.

Claim 11

Independent Claim 281 words

A method of varying the capacity of a hard disk drive, having a plurality of head/disk combinations, during a manufacturing process, comprising the steps of: measuring error rate and performing performance tests on each head/disk combination; determining if the error rate is greater than a predetermined reference error rate; upon the error rate being determined to be greater than the reference error rate, determining whether only a specific head/disk combination has failed to meet the reference error rate and if so eliminating from usage each head/disk combination corresponding to the defective disk surface and if not, determining whether only two head/disk combinations fail to meet the reference error rate and if not, determining the hard disk drive to be totally defective and if so, eliminating from usage the two head/disk combinations corresponding to the two defective disk surfaces; determining the capacity of the hard disk drive; recording information on the determined capacity in one of a maintenance zone of a disk surface and a flash read only memory; changing a mode for a corresponding capacity upon determining that a mode must be changed for the determined capacity; performing a test sequence; and determining if all disk surfaces have been used and if so, determining the drive capacity to be a first predetermined value, and if not, determining if one head/disk combination has been eliminated from usage and if so, determining the hard disk drive capacity to be a second predetermined value and if not, determining if two head/disk combinations have been eliminating from usage and if so, determining the hard disk drive capacity to be a third predetermined value and if not, determining the hard disk drive to be totally defective.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 42 words

A method of varying the capacity of a hard disk drive during a manufacturing process as claimed in claim 7 , the performance test comprising at least one of an error rate test, a track squeeze test, and an off-track margin test.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 230 words

A hard disk drive, comprising: a memory comprising a plurality of disks each exhibiting a plurality of major surfaces, a plurality of tracks and a maintenance zone; a plurality of heads with each of said heads disposed to selectively read information from different corresponding ones of said surfaces, with corresponding ones of said heads and major surfaces forming a multiplicity of pairs of head and major surface combinations; a plurality of arms movably supporting said heads to seek and follow said tracks on said surfaces; a read channel circuit generating position error signals in response to servo information read by said heads from disks; and a controller testing each of said of said plurality of disks, making a first determination of whether each of said plurality of disks meets a reference standard, making a second determination whenever said first determination indicates a failure by any of said surfaces of any of said plurality of disks to meet said reference standard, of whether said failure is attributable to a single one of said major surfaces, when said second determination establishes that said failure is attributable to a single one of said major surfaces, varying capacity of said memory by initiating an elimination of said single one of said major surfaces and a corresponding one of said plurality of heads from use, and determining capacity of said memory in dependence upon elimination.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 230 words

A hard disk drive, comprising: a memory comprising a plurality of disks each exhibiting a plurality of major surfaces, a plurality of tracks and a maintenance zone; a plurality of heads with each of said heads disposed to selectively read information from different corresponding ones of said surfaces, with corresponding ones of said heads and major surfaces forming a multiplicity of pairs of head and major surface combinations; a plurality of arms movably supporting said heads to seek and follow said tracks on said surfaces; a read channel circuit generating position error signals in response to servo information read by said heads from disks; and a controller testing each of said of said plurality of disks, making a first determination of whether each of said plurality of disks meets a reference standard, making a second determination whenever said first determination indicates a failure by any of said surfaces of any of said plurality of disks to meet said reference standard, of whether said failure is attributable to a single one of said major surfaces, when said second determination establishes that said failure is attributable to a single one of said major surfaces, varying capacity of said memory by initiating an elimination of said single one of said major surfaces and a corresponding one of said plurality of heads from use, and determining capacity of said memory in dependence upon elimination.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 25 words

The hard disk drive of claim 9 , with said controller further comprised of scanning both servo and data fields of each of said surfaces.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 29 words

The hard disk drive of claim 9 , with said controller further comprised of recording information about said capacity on one of said maintenance zone and a flash memory.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 42 words

The hard disk drive of claim 9 , with said controller further comprised of performing said testing by making a test of one of an error rate test, a tack squeeze test and an off-track markgin test of each of said surfaces.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 253 words

A hard disk drive, comprising: a memory comprising a plurality of disks each exhibiting a plurality of major surfaces, a plurality of tracks and a maintenance zone; a plurality of heads with each of said heads disposed to selectively read data from different corresponding ones of said surfaces, with corresponding ones of said heads and major surfaces forming a multiplicity of pairs of said heads and corresponding said major surfaces; a plurality of arms movably supporting said heads to seek and follow said tracks on said surfaces; a read channel circuit generating position error signals in response to servo information read by said heads from said disks; and a controller driven to perform testing each of said of said plurality of disks by identifying defects attributable to said memory while driving said plurality of arms to scan said plurality of heads along each of said plurality of major surfaces, making a comparison of said defects to a reference value, and in dependence upon said comparison, making an initial determination of whether said defects are attributable to a single pair of said pairs of heads and corresponding major surfaces, varying a nominal capacity of said memory by initiating an elimination of said single pair from use within said hard disk drive when said initial determination establishes that said defects are attributable to a single pair, making a subsequent determination of a resulting capacity of said memory in dependence upon said elimination, and marking said hard disk drive with information indicative of said resulting capacity.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 253 words

A hard disk drive, comprising: a memory comprising a plurality of disks each exhibiting a plurality of major surfaces, a plurality of tracks and a maintenance zone; a plurality of heads with each of said heads disposed to selectively read data from different corresponding ones of said surfaces, with corresponding ones of said heads and major surfaces forming a multiplicity of pairs of said heads and corresponding said major surfaces; a plurality of arms movably supporting said heads to seek and follow said tracks on said surfaces; a read channel circuit generating position error signals in response to servo information read by said heads from said disks; and a controller driven to perform testing each of said of said plurality of disks by identifying defects attributable to said memory while driving said plurality of arms to scan said plurality of heads along each of said plurality of major surfaces, making a comparison of said defects to a reference value, and in dependence upon said comparison, making an initial determination of whether said defects are attributable to a single pair of said pairs of heads and corresponding major surfaces, varying a nominal capacity of said memory by initiating an elimination of said single pair from use within said hard disk drive when said initial determination establishes that said defects are attributable to a single pair, making a subsequent determination of a resulting capacity of said memory in dependence upon said elimination, and marking said hard disk drive with information indicative of said resulting capacity.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 29 words

The hard disk drive of claim 13 , further comprised of said controller recording said information on one of said maintenance zone of said memory and a flash memory.

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 151 words

The hard disk drive of claim 13 , further comprised of said controller performing said testing by: scanning servo fields of all of said major surfaces to identify servo defects from among said defects attributable to said memory; determining position and number of said servo defects within each of said servo fields for each of said pairs of heads and corresponding major surfaces; determining whether the number of servo defects detected within each of said servo fields is greater than a predetermined servo reference number; when the number of servo defects within said servo fields is determined to be greater than said servo reference number, determining whether the servo defects within the servo fields exist only in a specific major surface; and when said servo defects are determined to exist only in a specific major surface, performing said elimination by withdrawing said single pair including said major surface, from said use.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 122 words

The hard disk drive of claim 13 , further comprised of said controller performing said testing by: scanning data fields of all of said major surfaces to identify scan defects from among said defects attributable to said memory; determining a number of scan defects within said data field; determining whether said number of scan defects detected is greater than a scan defect reference number; when said number of scan defects detected is greater than said scan defect reference number, determining whether said scan defects occur within only a specific major surface; and when said scan defects are determined to occur only within a specific major surface, initiating said elimination by withdrawing from said use said single pair including said specific major surface.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 256 words

The hard disk drive of claim 13 , father comprised of said controller performing said testing by: scanning servo fields of all of said major surfaces to identify servo defects from among said defects attributable to said memory; determining position and number of said servo defects within each of said servo fields for each of said pairs of heads and corresponding major surfaces; determining whether the number of servo defects detected within each of said servo fields is greater than a predetermined servo reference number; when the number of servo defects within said servo fields is determined to be greater than said servo reference number, determining whether the servo defects within the servo fields exist only in a specific major surface; when said servo defects are determined to exist only in a specific major surface, performing said elimination by withdrawing said single pair including said specific major surface, from said use; scanning data fields of all of said major surfaces to identify scan defects from among said defects attributable to said memory; determining a number of scan defects within said data field; determining whether said number of scan defects detected is greater than a scan defect reference number; when said number of scan defects detected is greater than said scan defect reference number, determining whether said scan defects occur only within a particular major surface; and when said scan defects are determined to occur only within a particular major surface, initiating said elimination by withdrawing from said use said single pair including said particular major surface.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 98 words

The hard disk drive of claim 13 , further comprised of said controller performing said testing by: measuring error rate and performing performance tests on each of said pairs; determining whether the error rate is greater than a reference error rate; when the error rate is determined to be greater than said reference error rate, determining whether a specific one of said pairs has failed to meet the reference error rate; and when said specific pair is determined to have failed to meet the reference error rate, performing said elimination by withdrawing said specific pair from said use.

Claim 25

Dependent Claim 158 words

The hard disk drive of claim 13 , further comprised of said controller performing said testing by: measuring error rate and performing performance tests on each of said pairs; determining whether the error rate is greater than a reference error rate; when the error rate is determined to be greater than said reference error rate, determining whether a specific pair among said plurality of pairs has failed to meet the reference error rate; when said specific pair is determined to have failed to meet the reference error rate, performing said elimination by withdrawing said specific pair from said use; when said error rate is not attributable to only a said specific pair, determining whether only two of said pairs has failed to meet the reference error rate; and when only two of said pairs is determined to have failed to meet said reference error rate, initiating said elimination by withdrawing both of said two pairs from said use.

Claim 26

Dependent Claim 91 words

The hard disk drive of claim 19 , further comprised of said controller performing said testing by: marking said hard disk drive with a first indication of capacity when none of said pairs are withdrawn from said use; marking said hard disk drive with a second and different indication of said resulting capacity when only a single specific pair is withdrawn from said use; and marking said hard disk drive with a third and different indication of said resulting capacity when only two of said pairs are withdrawn from said use.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2004-03-19	2004-09-18	2005-03-20	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2008-03-19	2008-09-18	2009-03-20	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2012-03-19	2012-09-18	2013-03-20	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Method of varying capacity of head disk drive during manufacturing process by checking head/disk combinations for defects

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