Patent ID: 8509048

Claim:
A storage device, comprising: a storage medium including a plurality of areas and configured to store a signal in each of the areas; and a plurality of probes, each of which has a recording/reproducing portion facing the storage medium and is configured to record/reproduce a signal to/from each of the areas via the portion, wherein: the probes include a first probe, a second probe spaced from the first probe in a first direction, and a third probe spaced from the first probe in the first direction and in a second direction different from the first direction; and a distance X p1 in the first direction between the portions of the first probe and the second probe, a distance X p2 in the first direction between the portions of the first probe and the third probe, and a distance Y p2 in the second direction between the portions of the first probe and the third probe satisfy the following formulae: X p1 =n·X m X p2 =X m Y p2 =Y m /n [Math 1] (, provided that n=2, 3, 4, . . . ), where X m is a length of each area in the first direction; and Y m is a length of each area in the second direction, the areas include a first area where the first probe records or reproduces the signal, and a second area where the third probe records or reproduces the signal; and a distance X p3 in the first direction between centers of the first area and the second area and a distance Y p3 in the second direction between centers of the first area and the second area satisfy the following formulae: X p3 =X p2 Y p3 =Y p2 . [Math 2]: