Embodiments of the invention improve the cache hit ratio of read data. A
hard disk drive (HDD) according to an embodiment of the present invention
determines whether the read buffer should be used in its entirety or the
partial continuous space should be used to read read-data from the
magnetic disk. When the HDD determines use of the partial continuous
space, the HDD specifies the sub-buffer which is a continuous space
wherein the leading-end position and the trailing-end position are
coupled to each other, and executes data writing to the sub-buffer in
parallel with data reading from the sub-buffer and transmission thereof
to the host. The sub-buffer capacity coincides with the data length of
the back data.