System, method, and apparatus for characterizing, tracking, and segregating known defective disk regions on patterned disks

A system for tracking and segregating repeated defects on media disks as tabled data in disk drives is disclosed. The disks have the same defects as the sub-master from which they are formed. Likewise, the sub-masters have the same defects as the master from which they are formed which, in turn, are passed down to the disks themselves. This information is recorded in the disk drives to avoid read/write operations in the affected sectors of the disks. In addition, the order and production quantities of sub-masters and disks made are tracked since replication performance decays over time.