According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk device includes a plurality of disks including a first area to which data is randomly written in normal recording and to which an LBA is added, and a second area to which data is written in shingled recording to write a plurality of tracks overlaid in a radial direction and to which an LBA is added, a plurality of heads, and a controller which writes data to the first area in the normal recording, writes data to the second area in the shingled recording, and changes the first area in accordance with a first recording capacity of a first recording surface in each of the disks, which corresponds to a first head of the heads, when the first head is inhibited from being used.

The instant disclosure provides an accelerated computer system and an accelerated method for writing data into discrete pages. The accelerated method includes executing write commands, with each write command including write data and a write address such that the write address corresponds to a write page of the first pages in a sector of a hard drive, identifying whether the write pages are successive according to the write addresses, acquiring stored data by reading the sector according to the write addresses if the write pages are discrete, writing the data stored in the first pages into the second pages of a memory, writing write data bit by bit into the second pages according to the write addresses, and writing the data stored in the second pages into the first pages.

A storage system for continuing I/O without affecting drive box addition to a host computer includes: a plurality of drive boxes for connecting to a computer device that transmits commands for data reads or writes; and a storage controller connected to the drive boxes. A first drive box provides a first storage region to the computer device. The storage controller manages correspondence between the first storage region and a physical storage region of the drives constituting the first storage region. The first drive box receives a command for the first storage region from the computer device and transfers the command to the storage controller. The storage controller generates a data transfer command including a data storage destination based on the address management table, and transfers the command to the first drive box. The first drive box then transfers the data transfer command to the second drive box.

Systems, apparatuses and methods may provide for technology to automatically identify a plurality of non-volatile memory locations associated with a file in response to a close operation with respect to the file and automatically conduct a prefetch from one or more of the plurality of non-volatile memory locations that have been most recently accessed and do not reference cached file segments. The prefetch may be conducted in response to an open operation with respect to the file and on a per-file segment basis.

A shack-sensor apparatus may include a sensor configured to detect a positional state of a hard-drive drawer. The shock-sensor apparatus may also include a mounting component coupled to the sensor and configured to mount the sensor in a location to monitor the positional state of the hard-drive drawer. In addition, the shock-sensor apparatus may include a computing module, electronically coupled to the sensor, that analyzes sensor data provided by the sensor to predict a shock event of the hard-drive drawer and send, in response to predicting the shock event, a signal to at least one hard drive in the hard-drive drawer to prevent damage to the hard drive. Various other apparatuses, systems, and methods are also disclosed.

Described is storage system and method for reducing power consumption. The storage system has first and second physical disks configured to provide mirroring. The first physical disk is placed into a power-saving mode of operation, while the second physical disk is in an active mode of operation responding to read and write requests. The first physical disk transitions from the power-saving mode of operation to an active mode of operation for destaging writes pending from cache to the first physical disk, while the second physical disk responds to read and write requests. The second physical disk transitions from the active mode of operation to the power-saving mode of operation, while the first physical disk responds to read and write requests.

According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk device includes a magnetic disk, a first magnetic head, a second magnetic head, a buffer memory, and a control circuit. The magnetic disk includes a plurality of first storage regions. The control circuit controls the first magnetic head to read first data from a second storage region of the first storage regions to the buffer memory. The control circuit controls the second magnetic head to write second data to a third storage region concurrently with the reading of the first data. The third region is of the first storage regions, different from the second storage region. The second data corresponds to the first data stored in the buffer memory.

A system includes a read/write module and a caching module. The read/write module is configured to access a first portion of a recording surface of a rotating storage device. Data is stored on the first portion of the recording surface of the rotating storage device at a first density. The caching module is configured to cache data on a second portion of the recording surface of the rotating storage device at a second density. The second portion of the recording surface of the rotating storage device is separate from the first portion of the recording surface of the rotating storage device. The second density is less than the first density.

The disclosed technology provides a method that reduces time to recover in storage systems. In one implementation, the method comprises entering an idle status, determining if there is an incomplete band update operation, invalidating a media scratch pad (MSP) by clearing headers responsive to determining there is no incomplete band update operation, performing a power cycle, reading an MSP header, and determining if an MSP header is valid. If a rude power cycle occurs and the MSP header is determined to be valid, an MSP is examined, and restored if required. If a safe power cycle occurs, an MSP restore operation is not required, reducing time to recover.

According to one embodiment, a disk medium rotates in a first rotation state when access is given, and rotates in a second rotation state lower in rotation number than the first rotation state when access is not given. A controller receives, from a host device, a read command for reading first data stored in a first buffer, when the disk medium is in the second rotation state. The controller transmits the first data from the first buffer to the host device, without causing a shift into the first rotation state, and then shifts the disk medium into the first rotation state after completion of execution of the read command.