Patent ID: 7245448

Claim:
An information recording apparatus comprising: a plurality of recording media, combined integrally, having a plurality of recording surfaces; and a plurality sets of reading heads and writing heads, combined integrally, provided for the respective ones of said plurality of recording surfaces, wherein: upon writing data in each recording medium with the writing heads of the plurality sets of reading heads and writing heads, a writing position is controlled based on positioning information read out at least from the recording medium other than said recording medium in which data is being written; the plurality sets of reading heads and writing heads each individually can be separately controlled; and even when reading operation is carried out with one head of the plurality sets of reading heads and writing heads, writing operation can be carried out simultaneously with another head of the plurality sets of reading heads and writing heads, wherein the reading operation reads data and is not limited to the reading of servo-information or positioning information; a head IC is provided and configured so as to be able to simultaneously activate the reading head and the writing head of different head units, each head unit comprising a pair or the reading head and the writing head, provided for the respective one of the recording surfaces; and upon data writing, the head IC provides such a head select signal as to alternately activate the reading heads of the different head units for head positioning control respectively in timing for reading the positioning information, with activating the writing head of the single head unit in data writing timing, while, upon data reading, the head IC provides such a head select signal as to activate the reading head of the single head unit for head positioning control and data reading, wherein when a writing head of the plurality sets of reading heads and writing heads is activated for writing data in one recording surface, a reading head of the plurality sets of reading heads and writing heads, which is not necessary one provided for the same recording surface, is activated to read writing head positioning information, and the reading head and the writing head of the plurality sets of reading heads and writing heads provided for each recording surface of the recording medium are provided in the vicinity of one another.