Stretched-surface recording disk for use with a flying head

A novel magnetic recording disk, which employs a flexible film stretched and bonded to a rigid support disk, is described. Stretched-surface recording (SSR) provides a method of obtaining performance comparable to a rigid disk while retaining the cost advantages of flexible-media technology. It is capable of significantly higher data rate, access speed, and track density than floppy disks, and supports flying heads, adding to its reliability. Head-medium stability and recording performance are found to be excellent. It is shown that with proper design of the disk, stress relaxation and tension variation with environmental changes present no major concerns for data reliability.