Patterned medium and recording head
View Patent ↗A magnetic recording system includes a patterned medium comprised of land areas and trough areas, a write element which writes the data to the patterned medium, and a read element which reads the data from the patterned medium and servo information from the troughs. The land areas store data and the trough areas inhibit storage of data. The read element is wider than the write element.
1. A magnetic recording system comprising:
a patterned medium comprised of land areas and trough areas, the land areas for storing data and the trough areas for inhibiting storage of data;
a write element which writes the data to the patterned medium; and
a read element which reads the data from the patterned medium, the read element being wider than the write element, wherein the read element and the write element are part of a recording head that flies over the patterned medium during reads and writes.
2. The magnetic recording system of claim 1 , wherein the patterned medium comprises a polymer layer disposed on a substrate, the polymer layer defining the land areas and the trough areas and having a magnetic layer.
3. The magnetic recording system of claim 1 , wherein the read element has a read width and the write element has a write width, the read width being greater than the write width.
4. The magnetic recording system of claim 1 , wherein the patterned medium comprises a rotatable magnetic disk having tracks which store the data.
5. The magnetic recording system of claim 4 , wherein:
the tracks comprise the land areas; and
the tracks are separated on the rotatable magnetic disk by the trough areas.
6. An apparatus comprising:
storing means for storing data magnetically in data tracks, the data tracks being separated by erase bands that are physically stamped onto the storing means;
writing means for writing data to the storing means; and
reading means for reading data from the storing means, the reading means having a width that is greater than a width of the writing means, wherein the reading means and the writing means are part of a recording head that flies over the storing means during reading and writing.
7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the erase bands comprise troughs that are formed on the storing means between the data tracks.
8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the storing means comprises a patterned medium formed of a polymer layer disposed on a substrate, the polymer layer having the data tracks and the erase bands and having a magnetic layer.
9. A method of accessing data, comprising:
moving a recording head over a patterned medium comprised of land areas and trough areas, the land areas storing data and the trough areas storing servo information;
transferring data on a land area;
reading servo information from trough areas at the same time as transferring the data using the recording head having a read element and a write element, wherein the read element is wider than the write element; and
using the servo information to move the recording head relative to the land area.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
the land area comprises a data track, a first trough borders one side of the land area, and a second trough borders another side of the land area; and
using the servo information to move the recording head comprises comparing servo information from the first trough to servo information from the second trough and re-positioning the recording head based on the comparison.