Reduction of edge noise in thin film metal media using discrete tracks

Discrete tracks were used to determine the importance of edge effects in the recording performance of thin-film metal media. A small reduction of signal amplitude is observed when the discrete track width exceeds the head width, and the edges of a conventional track contribute noise but no signal to the readback process. Direct measurements of the error rate as a function of distance off-track show very similar values for discrete and conventional tracks of comparable width. This indicates that edge effects are not a significant source of errors for this particular head/disk combination