As requirements for data storage density increase for magnetic media, cell size decreases. One technique for adapting the magnetic medium to utilize smaller cells while preventing adjacent data from being overwritten during a write operation is shingled magnetic recording (SMR). SMR allows for increased areal density capability (ADC) as compared to conventional magnetic recording (CMR) but at the cost of some performance ability. As used herein, CMR refers to a system that allows for random data writes to available cells anywhere on a magnetic media. In contrast to CMR systems, SMR systems are designed to utilize a write element with a write width that is larger than a defined track pitch. As a result, changing a single data cell within a data track entails re-writing a corresponding group of shingled (e.g., sequentially increasing or decreasing) data tracks.
Another technique for increasing ADC of the magnetic medium is interlaced magnetic recording (IMR). IMR makes use of alternating data tracks of variable written track width and variable linear densities. For example, odd-numbered data tracks may have a wide written track width and a first linear density, while even-numbered data tracks have a narrower written track width and a second, different linear density. Track boundaries can be defined such that tracks of narrower width slightly overlap the underlying written tracks of wider track width. In IMR systems, some data tracks are randomly writable and other data tracks are not randomly writable.
In each of the above-described types of data storage systems, a risk of data degradation exists due to an effect known as adjacent track interference (ATI). Some systems implement one or more integrity-assurance techniques, such as direct offline scans or periodic track re-writes, to monitor and reduce a severity data degradation. Better data management techniques are desired to reduce a strain on processing resources and increase storage device performance while achieving or improving upon the ADC of these existing systems.