TRANSDUCER HEAD SKEW ARRANGEMENT FOR DISK DRIVE SYSTEM

A transducer head skew arrangement used in a multiple disk drive data storage system is provided. The disk drive unit includes a plurality of magnetic disk surfaces mounted for simultaneous rotation about an axis. A first sequence of servo information tracks are arrayed on a dedicated servo disk surface. At least one servo reference track is written on each data disk surface for storing servo reference information. The servo reference track (R0) is written on a first data disk (18) surface aligned with a predefined servo information track (22) on the dedicated servo disk (20) surface. Then servo reference tracks (R1-R13) are sequentially written on each successive consecutive data disk (18) surface progressively offset radially from the last written servo reference track. A plurality of data information tracks for storing data are disposed at predetermined positions relative to the servo reference track on each the data disk surface. A servo transducer head is mounted for movement in a radial direction across the first dedicated servo information for reading servo information; and a plurality of data transducer heads are mounted for movement with the servo transducer head in a radial direction across the disk surfaces for reading the servo reference tracks and for reading and/or writing data to the data information tracks. The distance moved by transducer heads for a cylinder switch is the same distance moved for each head switch, so that track-to-track seek time is minimized without requiring any additional time delay for each head switch. An overall data transfer rate increases for every data transfer accessing more than one data cylinder.