Patent ID: 8154823

Claim:
An information recording and reproducing apparatus, for use with a recording medium with recorded information on predetermined tracks formed on a plurality of recording surfaces, the information recording and reproducing apparatus comprising: a plurality of heads, each head provided for an associated recording surface, the head configured to move in a direction along a predetermined track; a first actuator for coarse adjustment, configured to support the heads, move the heads uniformly, and cause the heads to approach their predetermined tracks, the first actuator including a single voice coil motor (VCM) and a plurality of individual arms coupled to the VCM, each individual arm provided for an associated head and configured to move in accordance with driving by the VCM; a plurality of second actuators for fine adjustment, each second actuator provided for an associated head, disposed between the associated head and an associated arm, adapted to support the associated head, configured to move the associated head independently relative to the first actuator, and configured to move independently of the associated arm so as to suppress deviations of the head from the predetermined track; a plurality of recording processing circuits configured to simultaneously output recording signals which represent information to be recorded on the predetermined tracks to the heads; a plurality of reproducing processing circuits configured to be simultaneously supplied with reproduced signals read out from the predetermined tracks by the heads, the reproducing processing circuits configured to reproduce information from the reproduced signals; and a temporary storage unit configured to store at least (c−1)×d+1 information units, wherein c is the total number of the heads, and d is the predetermined number; wherein a plurality of recording units forming the predetermined tracks are configured to be divided into sets in which recording units approached simultaneously by the heads continue by a predetermined number less than the number of recording units forming each of the predetermined tracks, and wherein a plurality of recording units belonging to each of the sets are configured to be associated with serial numbers each representing a recording position of an information unit, in order of the serial number.