A hard disk drive includes a magnetic recording medium comprising data sectors along a data track, a read head arranged to read data from the data sectors, and an integrated circuit. The integrated circuit includes circuitry programmed to detect a read error associated with a first of the data sectors and continue to read data from the data sectors after the detection of the read error.

A method of recovering data from one or more failed data sectors includes estimating a reader offset position from a first or a second read attempt of the one or more failed data sectors at a current set of channel parameters and basing the estimated reader offset position on, at least in part, a position error signal generated during the first or second read attempt. At least one read is performed on the one or more failed data sectors at the estimated reader offset position to obtain one or more samples. The one or more samples are processed to obtain a processed sample. Iterative outer code recovery is performed on the processed sample.

A method of recovering data from one or more failed data sectors includes estimating a reader offset position from a first or a second read attempt of the one or more failed data sectors at a current set of channel parameters and basing the estimated reader offset position on, at least in part, a position error signal generated during the first or second read attempt. At least one read is performed on the one or more failed data sectors at the estimated reader offset position to obtain one or more samples. The one or more samples are processed to obtain a processed sample. Iterative outer code recovery is performed on the processed sample.

According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk device includes a disk including a first area where user data is written and a second area which is different from the first area, a head configured to write data to the disk and read data from the disk, and a controller configured to generate, when a first sector of a first track, which includes a first parity sector and the first sector which is different from the first parity sector in the first area, is reassigned to a second track in the second area, a second parity sector corresponding to the first sector.

ECC is used to for controlling errors in blocks of data by including a measure of redundancy within the data for recovering one or more unreadable portions of the data. A codeword includes at least a message and one or more additional ECC blocks. In the event of an unreadable sector, the ECC is decoded and used to recover the erroneous or missing portion(s) of the message. With disc access parallelism, ECCs can now be distributed across data storage surfaces and/or multiple storage platters. Distribution of ECCs increases the likelihood of recovering data from a head failure or from burst errors on a data storage surface and adds the option to decode parity after only 1/n revolutions.

An encoding for data in an audio data stream may be indicated in the data stream using a footer stored in low-order bits of data frames in the audio data stream. When the audio data stream may include either Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) or Direct Stream Digital (DSD) data, PCM data may be marked with a footer to indicate the encoding as PCM. The footer may be a fixed value, an alternating fixed value, a predetermined sequence of values, or a value computed based on the PCM data. Examples of computed values for the footer marker may include an error code, an error correction code (ECC), and a scrambled code.

A computer-implemented method, according to one embodiment, includes: receiving, from a tape drive, a first error location on a magnetic tape where a first error occurred, in addition to determining one or more areas on the magnetic tape to be examined based on the first error location. Independent of a read and/or write operation, the tape drive is instructed to induce relative motion between a tape head and the magnetic tape such that the tape head is positioned adjacent to each of the respective one or more areas in turn. Moreover, each of the one or more areas having a respective number of measured servo errors which exceeds a threshold value is identified as a damaged area of the magnetic tape.

A computer program product, according to one embodiment, includes a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith. The program instructions are readable and/or executable by a processor to cause the processor to: determine, by the processor, a first error location on a magnetic tape where a first error occurred. One or more areas on the magnetic tape to be examined are also determined, by the processor, based on the first error location. Independent of a read and/or write operation, relative motion between a tape head and the magnetic tape is induced by the processor, such that the tape head is positioned adjacent to each of the one or more areas in turn. Moreover, each of the one or more areas having a respective number of measured servo errors which exceeds a threshold value are identified, by the processor, as a damaged area of the magnetic tape.

An encoding for data in an audio data stream may be indicated in the data stream using a footer stored in low-order bits of data frames in the audio data stream. When the audio data stream may include either Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) or Direct Stream Digital (DSD) data, PCM data may be marked with a footer to indicate the encoding as PCM. The footer may be a fixed value, an alternating fixed value, a predetermined sequence of values, or a value computed based on the PCM data. Examples of computed values for the footer marker may include an error code, an error correction code (ECC), and a scrambled code.

According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk device includes a disk including a first track including a first sector, a second sector, and a first parity sector, a head, and a controller configured to, when writing a second track adjacent to the first track in the first direction, even if, in a third sector of the second track adjacent to the first sector in the first direction, a first upper limit in a second direction opposite to the first direction, continue the processing of writing data to the third sector, and if, in a fourth sector adjacent to the second sector in the first direction, a second upper limit in the second direction, stop the processing of writing data to the fourth sector.