Patent ID: 8077416

Claim:
A magnetic recording apparatus comprising: a magnetic recording medium that comprises: a servo region configured to provide positional read/write head data associated with alignment of the read/write head; a RAM region including a plurality of first tracks having a first magnetic portion, the first magnetic portions in adjacent tracks being physically separated by nonmagnetic portions from each other; a ROM region including a plurality of second tracks having a second magnetic portion, a width of the second magnetic portions in a direction perpendicular to a track direction of the first tracks being larger than that of the first magnetic portions in the perpendicular direction, the ROM region being initialized by applying a magnetic field so as to align a magnetization direction of the second magnetic portion in a given direction with respect to a direction of the second track; said RAM region and said ROM region separated from the servo region; and said read/write head that is movable relative to the magnetic recording medium, records information into the magnetic recording medium, and reproduces the information recorded in the magnetic recording medium, wherein a width of the first tracks in the perpendicular direction is equal to that of the second tracks in the perpendicular direction, wherein, in the ROM region, the second magnetic portions are intermittently arranged along the track direction, and wherein, in the ROM region, all the second magnetic portions are magnetized in the same direction.