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A comment on Discovering Hard Disk Physical Geometry Through Microbenchmarking (2019). Parent comment

Re:Discovering Hard Disk Physical Geometry Through Microbenc... by nubinetwork on Tuesday February 20, 2024 @12:30AM (#39438345)
> and the number of sectors per track can vary even between two sides of the same platter at the same radial distance

Wouldn't that cause all sorts of issues with SMR drives?

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Re:Discovering Hard Disk Physical Geometry Through Microbenc... by magicalhippo on Tuesday February 20, 2024 @05:29AM (#39439677)
The point with SMR is to overlap tracks like roof shingles, since the read heads can read a narrower track than the write heads can write.

In addition, the heads have multiple levels of independent actuation beyond the shared arm itself[1][2].

So as long as the tracks themselves are fairly consistent, I don't see why the number of sectors per track has to be equal.

[1]: https://pcper.com/2009/09/wd-unleashes-nested-actuator-and-a...

[2]: https://blog.westerndigital.com/hdd-magic-20tb-18tb/

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