###### Abstract  
Because so much information is currently being shared online, there has been a sharp rise in the need for data storage devices over the past ten years. The main storage option is the hard disk drive (HDD), which is less expensive than some other types of data storage. Physical constraints, such as the superparamagnetic limit, are difficult to overcome using existing HDD technology. Consequently, bit-patterned magnetic recording (BPMR) has emerged as a potential solution, offering higher areal densities whilst maintaining thermal stability. Nevertheless, BPMR poses new challenges, such as inter-symbol interference and inter-track interference. Consequently, a number of approaches, such as staggered island layouts and array-reader magnetic recording, have been proposed to overcome these issues. However, this article proposes a three-reader one-track detection method to enhance data retrieval in a staggered BPMR system. Leveraging three-track reading for one-track detection, we obtain three readback signals that function as mutual data sequences. This substantially enhances the detection process in one-dimensional partial-response maximum-likelihood channels. Next, using these mutual data sequences, four novel techniques are presented to enhance bit-error rate (BER) performance and detection accuracy: hard-information flipping, maximum soft-information finding, bit-summation detection, and multilayer perceptron (MLP). This study shows that these proposed techniques can provide better BER performance compared with conventional methods and that the MLP is the most effective technique in enhancing system performance. title: 2020 20  
AD of HDDs above 1.0 terabit per square inch (Tb/in\({}^{2}\)). As a result, some researchers have suggested using different magnetic recording methods to increase the AD of HDDs. Bit-patterned magnetic recording (BPMR) [3,4] is one of the most intriguing suggested recording methods, since it has the potential to reach an AD of up to 4.0 Tb/in\({}^{2}\)[1]. In contrast to PMR, BPMR can reduce transition noise in granular media by storing each data bit on a separate magnetic island, which is separated by non-magnetic material [5]. This approach differs from traditional hard disk drive technology, where each bit is stored across multiple magnetic grains within a typical granular magnetic film. The magnetic islands are created from a precursor magnetic film using nanolithography. The thin film and nanodot structures offer numerous advantages, such as high density, low cost, magnetic stability, and chemical stability [6,7]. Therefore, BPMR is considered one of the potential technologies to replace PMR due to its ability to enable greater storage densities. However, the process of creating the medium with a uniformly distributed island at very high precision, both in location and shape, is still a crucial issue of BPMR technology. To increase AD in BPMR, it is necessary to decrease the separation between magnetic islands. Typically, a reader is used to detect the magnetization of the magnetic islands. In the process of reading data, the reader covers multiple islands in both the down-track and cross-track directions, as it is usually wider than the track width [8]. In this scenario, the readback signal processing is challenging because of inter-symbol interference (ISI) and inter-track interference (ITI), also known as two-dimensional (2D) interference [9, 10, 11]. The severity of the 2D interference is dependent upon the operating AD, i.e., the higher the AD, the more severe the 2D interference. Another factor that may affect the BPMR system performance is media noise arising from imperfections in fabricating the recording medium, and this can have a major impact on the system performance [10,11]. In general, the primary sources of media noise stem from variations in the size and position of the magnetic islands. As a result, introducing a signal processing system that can handle 2D interference and media noise is crucial to realizing higher ADs.