A disk drive comprising a rotatable disk, a head actuated over the disk, and a controller is disclosed. The controller is configured to write a first force unit access write data to the cache as part of the cache data, write the first force unit access write data and a first metadata corresponding to the first force unit access write data to the first location by using the head, transmit a first write complete status to a host, and maintain the first force unit access write data in the cache as part of the cache data. The controller is also configured to store write data as part of the cache data. Furthermore, the controller is configured to write the cache data to a third location, and a metadata corresponding to the cache data to the disk.