Disk drive spindle motor start up using an additional motor winding upon startup failure

Claim 3

The method of claim 1 wherein said first driving mode is a bipolar mode in which two of said at least two motor windings are simultaneously driven.

Claim 4

The method of claim 1 wherein said second driving mode is a tripolar mode in which three motor windings are simultaneously driven.

Claim 5

A rotating disk data storage device, comprising: one or more rotatable data storage disks each having a plurality of concentric data tracks on one or more disk surfaces thereof; a spindle for rotatably supporting said data storage disks; a spindle motor for rotationally driving said spindle, said spindle motor having two or more motor windings; an actuator for supporting one or more read/write transducer heads adjacent to said one or more disk surfaces; an actuator motor for moving said actuator and read/write transducer heads to radial data tracks on said disk surfaces; a microcontroller for controlling and monitoring data storage device functions, said microcontroller including a read only memory having a number of control programs written therein and a random access memory for temporary data storage; read channel circuitry for receiving and amplifying data and servo signals read from said one or more disk surfaces by said read/write transducer heads; servo system controller circuitry for employing servo information read from said one or more disk surfaces to control said actuator motor to position said read/write heads at desired data tracks in response to commands from said host computer; host interface/disk controller circuitry for receiving host commands and data to be written on said one or more disk surfaces from a host computer, and for converting said data to a format suited for writing onto said one or more disk surfaces, and for providing data read from said one or more disk surfaces to said host computer in response to host read commands; and spindle motor driver and control means for controlling said spindle motor, including means for starting said rotational driving of said spindle motor using a first driving mode, means for switching said rotational driving of said spindle motor to a second driving mode if said first mode is unable to start the spindle motor accelerating, said second driving mode employing simultaneous driving of at least one more motor winding than said first driving mode, and means for stopping said rotational driving of said spindle motor in accordance with a command from said host computer or a predetermined time after said data has been transferred between said host interface/disk controller circuitry and said one or more disk surfaces.

Claim 6

A rotating disk data storage device, comprising: one or more rotatable data storage disks each having a plurality of concentric data tracks on one or more disk surfaces thereof; a spindle for rotatably supporting said data storage disks; a spindle motor for rotationally driving said spindle, said spindle motor having two or more motor windings; an actuator for supporting one or more read/write transducer heads adjacent to said one or more disk surfaces; an actuator motor for moving said actuator and read/write transducer heads to radial data tracks on said disk surfaces; a microcontroller for controlling and monitoring data storage device functions, said microcontroller including a read only memory having a number of control programs written therein and a random access memory for temporary data storage; read channel circuitry for receiving and amplifying data and servo signals read from said one or more disk surfaces by said read/write transducer heads; servo system controller circuitry for employing servo information read from said one or more disk surfaces to control said actuator motor to position said read/write heads at desired data tracks in response to commands from said host computer; host interface/disk controller circuitry for receiving host commands and data to be written on said one or more disk surfaces from a host computer, and for converting said data to a format suited for writing onto said one or more disk surfaces, and for providing data read from said one or more disk surfaces to said host computer in response to host read commands; and spindle motor driver and control means for controlling said spindle motor, including means for starting said rotational driving of said spindle motor using a first driving mode, means for switching said rotational driving of said spindle motor to a second driving mode if said first mode is unable to start the spindle motor accelerating, said second driving mode employing simultaneous driving of at least one more motor winding than said first driving mode, and means for stopping said rotational driving of said spindle motor in accordance with a command from said host computer or a predetermined time after said data has been transferred between said host interface/disk controller circuitry and said one or more disk surfaces.

Claim 7

A rotating disk data storage device as set out in claim 4, wherein the spindle motor has at least three motor windings and the second driving mode is a tripolar mode employing simultaneous driving of three motor windings.

Claim 8

A rotating disk data storage device as set out in claim 5, wherein the first driving mode is a bipolar mode employing simultaneous driving of two motor windings.

Claim 9

A rotating disk data storage device as set out in claim 4, wherein the spindle motor driver and control means further includes: means for switching the rotational driving from the second mode to a different driving mode employing simultaneous driving of at least one less motor winding than the second driving mode after the second driving mode has started the spindle motor accelerating.

Claim 10

A rotating disk data storage device as set out in claim 7, wherein the spindle motor includes at least three motor windings and wherein the different driving mode is a third driving mode.

Claim 11

A rotating disk data storage device as set out in claim 8, wherein the first driving mode is a bipolar mode employing simultaneous driving of two motor windings, the second driving mode is a tripolar mode employing simultaneous driving of three motor windings and the third driving mode is a unipolar mode employing simultaneous driving of a single motor winding.

Claim 14

A method for controlling a rotating disk data storage device as set out in claim 10, wherein the spindle motor includes at least three motor windings and wherein the step of switching from the second driving mode switches to a third driving mode different than the first driving mode.

Claim 15

A method for controlling a rotating disk data storage device as set out in claim 11, wherein the first driving mode is a bipolar mode employing simultaneous driving of two motor windings, the second driving mode is a tripolar mode employing simultaneous driving of three motor windings and the third driving mode is a unipolar mode employing simultaneous driving of one motor winding.