Claims
- 1. A method for managing the storage of data on a rotating magnetic disk drive data storage device, comprising the steps of:
determining that a portion of said rotating magnetic disk drive data storage device contains only data of a first type, said data of a first type requiring less than full soft error recovery; and disabling at least one soft error recovery step for said portion of said rotating magnetic disk drive responsive to said determination.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said data of a first type is non-alphanumeric data.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said portion of said rotating magnetic disk drive is the entire disk drive.
- 4. The method of claim 1, wherein said portion of said rotating magnetic disk drive is a recording surface of said disk drive.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said disabling step disables all soft error recovery steps for said portion of said rotating magnetic disk drive.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said disabling step disables all soft error recovery steps for said portion of said rotating magnetic disk drive after step N, where N is an integer greater than 0.
- 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said disabling step is performed by said rotating magnetic disk drive responsive to an external command received by said rotating magnetic disk drive.
- 8. The method of claim 1, wherein said rotating magnetic disk drive data storage device is one of a plurality of rotating magnetic disk drive data storage devices managed by an external management apparatus, said external management apparatus performing said determining step.
- 9. The method of claim 8, wherein said external management apparatus selects a rotating magnetic disk drive data storage device of said plurality of rotating magnetic disk drive data storage devices for storage of data based on a type of said data to be stored.
- 10. A rotating disk drive data storage device, comprising:
a disk drive base; at least one rotatably mounted disk for recording data on at least one surface of said at least one rotatably mounted disk; a movable actuator supporting at least one transducer head, said actuator positioning said at least one transducer head to access data on said at least one surface of said at least one rotatably mounted disk; and a controller for controlling the operation of said disk drive data storage device, said controller including a soft error recovery function for recovering from soft errors detected during data access, said controller further including a disabling function which disables said soft error recovery function responsive to an external command from a host system.
- 11. The rotating disk drive data storage device of claim 10, wherein said disabling function includes the capability to selectively disable said soft error recovery on individual portions of said disk drive, said individual portions being less than the entire data storage area of said disk drive.
- 12. The rotating disk drive data storage device of claim 10, wherein said disabling function includes a disable state variable, said state variable recording the current disable state, said state variable being altered by said disabling function responsive to an external command from a host system.
- 13. The rotating disk drive data storage device of claim 12, wherein said disable state variable comprises an array of values, each value of said array corresponding to a respective portion of storage area of said rotating disk drive data storage device.
- 14. The rotating disk drive data storage device of claim 10, wherein said disabling function disables all soft error recovery steps for said portion of said rotating disk drive data storage device.
- 15. The rotating disk drive data storage device of claim 10, wherein said disabling function disables all soft error recovery steps for said portion of said disk drive data storage device after step N, where N is an integer greater than 0.
- 16. A control program for a rotating disk drive data storage device, comprising:
a plurality of processor-executable instructions recorded on signal-bearing media, wherein said instructions, when executed by at least one processor control apparatus of a rotating disk drive data storage device, cause the device to perform the steps of: (a) performing a sequence of soft error recovery steps responsive to the detection of a soft error during operation of said rotating disk drive data storage device; (b) receiving a soft error recovery function disable command from an external device; and (c) disabling at least one soft error recovery step of said sequence of soft error recovery steps for at least a portion of said rotating disk drive storage device responsive to receiving said soft error recovery disable command.
- 17. The control program for a rotating disk drive data storage device of claim 16, wherein said disabling step comprises selectively disabling said soft error recovery on individual portions of said disk drive, said individual portions being less than the entire data storage area of said disk drive.
- 18. The control program for a rotating disk drive data storage device of claim 17, wherein said control program includes an array of disable state variables, each element of said array of disable state variables recording the current disable state of a corresponding respective portion of the data storage area of said rotating disk drive data storage device, said array of disable state variables being altered by said disabling step responsive to receiving said soft error function disable command.
- 19. The control program for a rotating disk drive data storage device of claim 16, wherein said disabling step disables all soft error recovery steps for said portion of said rotating disk drive data storage device.
- 20. The rotating disk drive data storage device of claim 16, wherein said disabling step disables all soft error recovery steps for said portion of said disk drive data storage device after step N, where N is an integer greater than 0.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/552,821, filed Apr. 20, 2000, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING A HETEROGENEOUS DATA STORAGE SYSTEM, which is herein incorporated by reference.
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09552821 |
Apr 2000 |
US |
Child |
10215409 |
Aug 2002 |
US |