Patent ID: 6850377

Claim:
A defect inspection method for a master information carrier having a magnetic film pattern that corresponds to an information signal to be magnetically transferred to a magnetic recording medium, comprising the steps of: inspecting a defect possibly present originally on a first-state inspection substrate to which a defect on the master information carrier is to be transferred; bringing the master information carrier in close contact with the first-state inspection substrate finished with defect inspection to thereby transfer the defect possibly present on the master information carrier to the inspection substrate finished with defect inspection; inspecting a defect, if any, on the second-state inspection substrate to which the defect is already transferred and also which is separated from the master information carrier; and comparing a defect inspection result on said second-state inspection substrate and a defect inspection result on said first-state inspection substrate to each other to thereby decide the defect possibly present on said master information carrier.