DISK DRIVE EMPLOYING ADAPTIVE READ/WRITE CHANNEL FOR OPTIMIZING HEAD-MEDIA-CHANNEL PERFORMANCE

摘要

Adaptive channel optimization in a disk drive is achieved by selecting a track of the recording medium and then writing a first data pattern to opposite sides of the selected track. The first data pattern (29a, 29b) is written a certain percentage of track (25a, 25b) in relation to the centerline (24) of the selected track. A second data pattern (30) is then written directly on the selected data track and the off track margin is determined as a function of how far the recording head can be positioned away from the center (24) of the selected track during reading of the second data pattern (30) while meeting a specified error rate. The off track margin test is repeated iteratively using a combination of channel variable settings in order to find a set of variable settings which provides an optimal performance criterion for the drive.