US 7,116,514 B2 · Methods and systems for magnetic recording

Abstract

According to one aspect, methods and systems for determining the position of a recording head using existing data structures on magnetic storage media are provided. In one example, a recording head writes data to an active track on a magnetic storage tape, the recording head including a write element and a read element in a known spatial relationship, wherein the read element is configured to access at least a portion of a reference track when the write element is accessing the active track. A controller determines a relative position of the transducer element to the reference track and repositions the recording head to write data to the active track. The read element may be a backward channel reader or dedicated read element of the recording head for reading reference tracks during read and/or write operations.

Claims27

Dependent claims

A method for recording data tracks on a magnetic storage medium, comprising:

recording a first data track on a storage medium;
recording a second data track on the storage medium, the second data track partially overlapping the first data track;
generating a read signal from a backward read element associated with a multichannel transducer head, the read signal associated with the first data track stored on the magnetic storage medium;
and
determining the relative position of the second data track relative to the first data track from the read signal.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Methods and systems for magnetic recording

Life of this patent

Methods and systems for magnetic recording

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims27