A method of writing data to a disk drive system including a plurality of disks and a plurality of heads, each head for writing data to a plurality of sectors on a surface of one of the plurality of disks, the method including: A. beginning from a first sector on a first surface of a first disk of the plurality of disks, writing, with a first head, data contiguously to sectors on the first surface of the first disk from the first sector on the first disk to the last sector on the first surface of the first disk; B. writing, with a second head, data contiguously to sectors on a second surface of the first disk from the last sector on the second surface of the first disk to the first sector on the second surface of the first disk; wherein spare sectors associated with the sectors written to the first surface of the first disk by the first head are written to the first surface of the first disk by the first head and spare sectors associated with the sectors written to the second surface of the first disk by the second head are written to the second surface of the first disk by the second head.