Patent ID: 7446967

Claim:
A method for measuring characteristics of a head adopted by a data storage device which comprises a recording disk used for recording data, the head having a read element and a write element separated from each other at positions in the radial direction of the recording disk, a movement mechanism to move the head; and a stop unit to prescribe a movement range of the movement mechanism in a state of being in contact with the movement mechanism comprising: writing patterns onto the rotating recording disk with the movement mechanism pushed against the stop unit; measuring a read signal representing the magnitude of a signal read out by the read element from the recording disk and a driving signal for driving the movement mechanism with the movement mechanism pushed against the stop unit while the read element is being moved in a direction toward the patterns; and determining the driving signal representing a characteristic of the head according to the measured read signal calculating a read/write offset of the head and write width of the head based on the measured read signal and the driving signal.