REGULATING DISTRIBUTION OF POWER IN A HARD DISK DRIVE FOLLOWING A POWER LOSS

摘要

Applicant has recognized and appreciated the desirability of powering an actuator using power drawn from one or both of an energy storage device and a spindle motor. In some embodiments, following a loss of external power to a hard disk drive, the hard disk drive (or one or more components thereof) determines whether to provide the actuator with power drawn from the spindle motor or to provide the actuator with power drawn from the spindle motor and from the energy storage device. In some embodiments, the hard disk drive (or the component(s) thereof) may additionally or alternatively determine whether to charge the energy storage device using power drawn from the spindle motor. In some embodiments, the drive may make the determinations based on an amount of power that the actuator is to consume at a time and an amount of power that the spindle motor can provide at the time.

主权项

1. A method of operating a hard disk drive in response to a loss of external power to the hard disk drive, the hard disk drive including a spindle motor to drive rotation of a plurality of platters, the hard disk drive further including an actuator to drive an actuator arm and a control circuit to control the actuator, the hard disk drive further including an energy storage device, the method comprising:
determining a first amount of power to be used by the actuator for driving the actuator arm at a time; and when a second amount of power that can be drawn from the spindle motor at the time is greater than the first amount of power to be used by the actuator for driving the actuator arm at the time, charging the energy storage device with power drawn from the spindle motor.