1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for determining an occurrence of a failure related to a head in a magnetic disk device that includes an automatic amplifying adjustment function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various techniques are know for preventing destruction or loss of data stored in the storage devices such as a magnetic disk device. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H9-139040 discloses a technology for preventing destruction or loss of data in the storage devices by assuring an operation to be properly performed for writing and reading of data to and from the storage devices.
According to the conventional techniques, as shown in FIG. 13, when a magnetic disk device 1 (see, FIG. 11 and FIG. 12), which has been connected to a higher-level device via a host interface or the like, is performing a data writing processing, if a head 14 of the magnetic disk device 1 comes in contact with dust 25 on a surface 26 of a disk medium 15, the head 14 temporarily floats abnormally due to a shock from the contact and moves to a position described with a reference numeral 22. Accordingly, an extra distance shown with reference numeral 23 is generated between the head 14 and the surface 26 of the disk medium 15, and there causes a problem that data cannot be written onto the disk medium 15 because a magnetic field 24 of the head 14 cannot reach the surface 26 of the disk medium 15 so that a weak signal is output from the head 14. When a weak signal is output from the head 14, the processing is terminated to prevent the data destruction, and a new attempt is made to perform the data writing processing.
According to the conventional techniques, floating of the head can be detected only after the occurrence of the floating. Thus, there is a need of a technology that can predict occurrence of the floating of the head.