Patent ID: 8097351

Claim:
A magnetic recording medium comprising: a substrate; and a magnetic layer containing magnetic patterns formed on the substrate and isolated from each other by a nonmagnetic material, the magnetic layer including data zones comprising recording tracks and servo zones, the magnetic patterns of the servo zones being used as address bits, wherein, in a case in which first and second rectangular magnetic patterns used as address bits on the servo zones corresponding to first and second adjacent recording tracks are arranged in such a manner that one corner of the first magnetic pattern is closest to one corner of the second magnetic pattern in a direction of a diagonal line and two sides forming the corner of each of the first and second magnetic patterns are in contact with the nonmagnetic material, wherein the closest corners of the first and second magnetic patterns are substantially separated from each other without forming point contact and the first magnetic pattern includes an edge which is substantially aligned in a track direction with an edge of the second magnetic pattern, and wherein the magnetic patterns comprise a soft magnetic underlayer and a magnetic recording layer formed on the soft magnetic underlayer.