Floating guard band for shingle magnetic recording

A hard disk drive, comprising:

• a disk that includes data written onto a plurality of tracks for invalid data;
• a spindle motor that rotates said disk;
• a head coupled to said disk, said head has a width;
• and
• circuit means for writing data onto a first writable shingle band of the tracks abutted to at least one track of the guard band designated as a floating guard band for valid data and as another writable shingle band.

A method for writing data onto a disk of a hard disk drive, comprising:

• providing a disk with shingle bands of tracks with data adjacent a guard band of tracks for invalid data;
• rotating the disk with a spindle motor;
• coupling a head having a width with the disk;
• writing data onto a first writable shingle band of the tracks abutted to at least one track of the guard band;
• and
• designating the guard band of tracks as a floating guard band for valid data.