Sequential Storage Media Access via Sector Skipping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current disk read operations are hindered by sector errors, leading to performance degradation, increased power consumption, and reduced operational lifetime due to the need to halt and restart disk operations for each unread sector during media drive rotation.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method where the media disk interface attempts to read or write subsequent sectors during the same revolution, deferring re-attempts for failed sectors until after completing the current read or write operation, thereby optimizing data access and reducing unnecessary revolutions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the read/write head halts and restarts disk read operations for each sector error during media disk rotation, then the unread sector can be re-attempted in subsequent revolutions, but media drive performance degrades due to increased data seek-times and power consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by identifying and marking failed sectors during the current revolution, then proactively planning to skip these sectors in subsequent revolutions. This allows the read/write head to maintain continuous rotation and sequential access patterns without halting for each error, thereby preserving media drive performance while ensuring reliable data retrieval through pre-planned error handling.
2Reliability
If the read/write head halts and restarts disk read operations for each sector error, then the unread sector can be re-attempted, but operational lifetime of the media drive is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
By detecting sector errors during the current revolution and pre-planning to skip these sectors in future revolutions, the system avoids repeated halt-and-restart cycles that accelerate wear. This preliminary error handling strategy extends media drive operational lifetime by maintaining smoother rotation patterns and reducing mechanical stress from frequent start-stop operations.
3Reliability
If the read/write head halts and restarts disk read operations for each sector error, then data can be recovered from failed sectors, but data seek-times increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by identifying failed sectors during the current revolution and pre-calculating skip strategies for subsequent revolutions. This allows the read/write head to maintain continuous rotation and sequential access patterns, significantly reducing data seek-times compared to halting and restarting operations for each error, while still ensuring complete data recovery through planned re-attempts.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure describes apparatuses and techniques of improved sequential-access of storage media. In some aspects an indication that a storage media interface failed to access a block of storage media is received during a sequential-access of the storage media and the storage media interface is caused to attempt to read a next block of the sequential-access subsequent the sector failed to be accessed during the same sequential-access.