Patent ID: 7782561

Claim:
A magnetic recording medium comprising: a substrate; a plurality of discrete magnetizable islands on the substrate, the islands being arranged into a plurality of spaced-apart tracks; wherein the tracks are arranged into groups of N tracks, where N is equal to or greater than 2, with the islands in each track in a group being shifted along-the-track from the islands in adjacent tracks in the group by a first shift amount, wherein no island in a group is aligned in the along-the-track direction with another island in the group; and wherein each group is spaced from adjacent groups a distance greater than the track spacing within the group and the islands in a group are shifted in the along-the-track direction from the islands in adjacent groups by a second shift amount different from said first shift amount, wherein no island in a group is aligned in the along-the-track direction with an island in an adjacent group.