A Statistical Model on Drive-Level Stiction

Abstract

We present a statistical model that correlates the drive-level stiction behavior, which involves multiple head-disk interfaces, to its constituentsrsquo; component-level stiction behavior. The model takes into account all types of component-level stiction events, namely fly stiction as well as normal stiction. The important conclusions from this study are as follows, (i) Drives with a large number of head-disk interfaces are significantly more immune to stiction induced spin failure than one might perceive. (ii) The stiction per interface measured in a drive is always lower than the component-level stiction and decreases with increasing number of head-disk interfaces.