A disk drive is disclosed including a disk, and a head actuated over the disk. Control circuitry within the disk drive is operable to receive a write operation for a refresh zone of the disk, measure a write operation quality parameter that affects the quality of the write operation, and perform the write operation. An update function is enabled in connection with performing the write operation, wherein the update function is operable to update a refresh monitor as a function of the write operation and the write operation quality parameter. Data stored in the refresh zone of the disk is refreshed in response to the refresh monitor.