Patent ID: 7551381

Claim:
A storage medium read/write device that reads data from or writes data to a storage medium, comprising: a read/write unit that performs reading of data from and writing of data to the storage medium with the aid of a head provided with a writing member and a reading member placed apart from each other, the reading member being used for reading data and the writing member being used for data writing data; and a restricting unit that restricts a range of movement of the head, wherein said restricting unit comprises an inner stopper and an outer stopper positioned to create at least two protected areas on said storage medium which may be read from and not written to, and wherein when the storage medium is a disk, the writing member and the reading member are variably installed in such a manner that the writing member is located at a specific distance from the reading member either towards the center or towards the outer periphery of the disk, in accordance with the location of the protected areas of the disk where specific data including servo track writer (STW) information are stored, rendering the data safe from tampering and erasure.