Patent ID: 6025971
Filing Date: 2000-02-15
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
A magnetic disk drive comprising:a rotary actuator;a rotary actuator arm having a first end and a second end connected to said rotary actuator;a composite magnetic head, mounted on said first end of said rotary actuator arm, and structured by integrally combining a write head into a read head;a magnetic disk having an area where cylinder number information is recorded, an area where sector number information is recorded, a servo area where servo information is recorded, and a data area where data is recorded;head tracking servo means for providing a positioning offset to said composite magnetic head such that said write head is set to be on-track in the data area of said magnetic disk at a write operation and said read head is set to be on-track state in the data area of said magnetic disk at a read operation; andstoring means, including a nonvolatile solid-state memory, for storing defect sector information of said magnetic disk and defect track information, whereinsaid magnetic disk further comprises an area for recording first cylinder information, second cylinder information and sector number information, wherein the first cylinder information is recorded at a position where the read head is on-track during the read operation, wherein the second cylinder information is recorded at a position where the write head is on-track during the data write operation, and wherein the sector number information is recorded at a forward portion of each data sector with a width at least as large as a track pitch.