Methods for adaptive throttling of data refresh operations and disk drives implementing the same

• Main Authors: REID BRUCE E, PATKAR KAUSTUBH S, FALLONE ROBERT M
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 10.09.2013
• Subjects: INFORMATION STORAGE; INFORMATION STORAGE BASED ON RELATIVE MOVEMENT BETWEEN RECORDCARRIER AND TRANSDUCER; PHYSICS

A method of refreshing data on a hard disk drive configured to carry out commands issued by a host that comprises tracking run-time conditions related to patterns of host command activity on the hard disk drive; selecting an entry from a high priority pool that is configured to hold a predetermined maximum number of entries, each entry comprising a plurality of tracks having been designated as being eligible for a high priority refresh operation as a result of the host command activity; refreshing data stored on at least one track of the selected entry; pausing the refreshing for a period of time equal to a throttle interval to process at least one command issued by the host before returning to the selecting or to the refreshing, and periodically modifying a value of the throttle interval depending upon the tracked run-time conditions.