A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk, a head actuated over the disk, and a history array for storing a plurality of history records, wherein each history record having a history range identifying a range of sector addresses proximate the sector address of a host command. As new host commands are received, the sector address of each host command is compared to the history records in the history array. A counter is adjusted in response to each comparison, and an operating mode of the disk drive is configured into a new operating mode if the counter exceeds a threshold, wherein the configuring includes adjusting at least one of the history range and the threshold relative to the new operating mode.