Patent ID: 6950259

Claim:
A disk drive comprising: a disk adapted for recording data signals by perpendicular magnetic recording, and having a data format including a servo area and a gap region for absorbing rotation fluctuations and for recording a PLL synchronizing signal; a magnetic head unit having a write head for writing data signals onto the disk and a read head for reading data signals from the disk; a read/write device which executes a write operation for writing the data signals in accordance with the data format on the disk using the write head at a timing of outputting a write gate signal and a read operation for reading the data signals using the read head at a timing of outputting a read gate signal; and a gate generator constructed and arranged to generate the write gate signal and the read gate signal, wherein the gate generator determines the timing of outputting the write gate signal in the write operation in accordance with a separating gap between the write head and the read head in a peripheral direction of the disk and the data format, and that of outputting the read gate signal in the read operation, the read gate signal being output at the timing corresponding to the gap region and before the timing of the write gate signal, the write operation including an operation to record the PLL synchronizing signal in the gap region.