Accompanying the MR (magnetoresistive) head is the problem of thermal asperities which can cause unrecoverable errors if improperly compensated. The authors describe inexpensive digital techniques used with a sampling detector that significantly reduce the chances of thermal-asperity-induced unrecoverable errors. Disk file testing with simulated thermal asperities demonstrated a significant reduction of data errors using the ADC (analog-to-digital converter) expanded headroom technique. Use of the timing and gain correction hold scheme showed a reduction of data synchronization failures from thermal asperities. The value of these techniques has been shown in the ability to reduce thermal-asperity-caused error burst lengths to match the error correction code capability of a disk drive.
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