Optical disk drives with thermomagnetic writing and magnetoresistive reading

A device, comprising:

• a disk holder operable to hold and spin an optical disk, said disk having a transparent substrate having first and second opposing substrate surfaces and a magneto-optic recording layer formed over said second substrate surface and absorbing an optical beam, wherein said disk is partially transparent to said optical beam to produce a transmitted optical beam with servo and tracking information;
• a hybrid head including an optical head operable to couple said optical beam to the optical disk through said first substrate surface, an inductive writer positioned to produce a magnetic field at a location in said recording layer where said optical beam is focused, an optical detector aligned with said optical head to receive said transmitted optical beam from the optical disk, and a magnetic reading header displaced from said inductive writer to read data from the recording layer;
• and
• an actuator having two actuator arms to move and position said hybrid head to place said optical head over said first substrate surface and to place said inductive writer, said optical detector, and said magnetic reading head over said second substrate surface.