A disk drive capable of being configured into a plurality of data storage zones, wherein some of the zones have different performance characteristics than other zones; a method for performing such a zoning configuration; and, a host device utilizing such a disk drive. The disk drive comprises a disk having a plurality of sectors for storing data, a head for reading and writing the data, and a disk drive controller for controlling the head, wherein the plurality of the sectors are organized into the plurality of zones. In one embodiment of the present invention, the performance characteristics of the zones are dictated by configuration settings in the disk drive controller. The configuration settings may include settings for a plurality of parameters. In some embodiments of the present invention, the plurality of parameters comprises a CCT (command completion time) parameter, a Write Verify parameter, a Write Continuous parameter, a Read Continuous parameter, and an Error Re-allocation parameter. In other embodiments of the present invention, the configuration settings may also include a group of addresses associated with each zone.