Patent Application
20080256265
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system that provides a visual indication of a reliability of a hard disk drive.
2. Background Information
Hard disk drives are used in various systems such as computers, music players, etc. The drives are used as non-volatile memory that can store large amounts of data.
A conventional disk drive includes one or more disks that are rotated by a spindle motor. Magnetic heads are used to write and read data from the surfaces of the disks. The disk surfaces are organized into a series of concentric radial tracks. Each track is divided into a plurality of sectors. Incoming data is mapped to available sectors for storage. The drives typically have self-diagnostic functions that can determine whether a sector is bad. Bad sectors are reallocated and not used by the disk drive.
The capacity and reliability of a disk drive can be ascertained by viewing certain graphical user interfaces provided by the system operating system. Accessing such data requires a certain level of knowledge and skill about the operating system and systems in general. Lexar Media has marketed a USB flash drive that includes a visual display that provides the memory capacity of the drive. This product does not provide a ready means for viewing drive reliability.
A disk drive “crash” is an undesirable event that may result in the loss of data. It would be desirable to have a system that readily provides an indication of disk drive reliability to the user of the system.
A system that contains a hard disk drive. The system includes a visual display that is coupled to a housing and displays an indication of a reliability of the hard disk drive.
Disclosed is a system with a visual display that provides an indication of a reliability of a hard disk drive of the system. The visual display may display the number of sector reallocations that have been performed by the disk drive. The display is coupled to a system housing so that a user can readily determine the reliability of the disk drive.
Referring to the drawings more particularly by reference numbers,
The system 10 may include a microprocessor 12, one or more memory devices 14 and a hard disk drive 16. These components may be coupled to a bus 18. The system 10 may also have one or more input/output ports 20 for connection to a monitor, keyboard, printer, etc.
The disk drive 16 may contain software that determines whether a disk sector is bad and reallocates the sector. By way of example, the disk drive may have a SMART log processing software that identifies and reallocates bad sectors. Alternatively, the processor 12 may operate software that identifies and reallocates bad sectors. The bad sectors may be counted and listed in a log.
The system 10 includes a housing 22 that encloses the various hardware components, such as the processor 12, memory 14 and disk drive 16. A visual display 24 is attached to the outside of the housing 22. The visual display 24 provides an indication of the reliability of the disk drive. For example, the visual display 24 may display the number of sector reallocations of the drive.
The visual displays 24 and/or 24′ may be liquid crystal devices (“LCDs”). Alternatively, the visual displays 24 and/or 24′ may be electronic paper (“E-paper”). The visual displays 24 and/or 24′ may be driven by the system processor 12, or directly by the disk drive 16.
The disk drive 16 may include a plurality of heads 56 located adjacent to the disks 50. The heads 56 may have separate write and read elements (not shown). The write element magnetizes the disk 50 to write data. The read element senses the magnetic fields of the disks 50 to read data. By way of example, the read element may be constructed from a magneto-resistive material that has a resistance which varies linearly with changes in magnetic flux.
Each head 56 may be gimbal mounted to a flexure arm 58 as part of a head gimbal assembly (HGA). The flexure arms 58 are attached to an actuator arm 60 that is pivotally mounted to the base plate 54 by a bearing assembly 62. A voice coil 64 is attached to the actuator arm 60. The voice coil 64 is coupled to a magnet assembly 66 to create a voice coil motor (VCM) 68. Providing a current to the voice coil 64 will create a torque that swings the actuator arm 58 and moves the heads 56 across the disks 50.
The hard disk drive 16 may include a printed circuit board assembly 72 that includes a plurality of integrated circuits 74 coupled to a printed circuit board 76. The printed circuit board 74 is coupled to the voice coil 68, heads 56 and spindle motor 52 by wires (not shown).
The read/write channel circuit 88 is connected to the controller 92 through read and write channels 94 and 96, respectively, and read and write gates 98 and 100, respectively. The read gate 98 is enabled when data is to be read from the disks 50. The write gate 100 is to be enabled when writing data to the disks 50. The controller 92 may be a digital signal processor that operates in accordance with a software routine, including a routine(s) to write and read data from the disks 50. The read/write channel circuit 88 and controller 92 may also be connected to a motor control circuit 102 which controls the voice coil motor 70 and spindle motor 52 of the disk drive 16. The controller 92 may be connected to a non-volatile memory device 104. By way of example, the device 104 may be a read only memory (“ROM”) that contains instructions that are read by the controller 92.
While certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative of and not restrictive on the broad invention, and that this invention not be limited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described, since various other modifications may occur to those ordinarily skilled in the art.
