Abstract

A method and apparatus is disclosed for providing a track pitch on a recording surface that is associated with the width of the tracks written by the write element of a head therefore reducing the number of heads that are discarded when a fixed relationship between track pitch of storage media in a storage device is desired. The method includes the steps of calculating the width of a write element to be associated with a storage medium and determining the track pitch for the storage medium based upon the calculated width of the write element. The step calculation of the width of the read/write element includes writing a pattern on a storage medium at a predetermined radius using the write element associated with the storage medium to form a written track, moving the head across the written track to read an amplitude sensed from the written track by the head, and ascertaining the width of the write element based upon the sensed amplitude. Ascertaining the width of the write element includes the steps of determining the amplitude of the sensed signal, identifying a one-half amplitude point on a rising edge of the sensed signal and a one-half amplitude point at a falling edge of the sensed signal and computing the distance between the two points. The pattern written on the storage medium may be a constant frequency pattern. The determined track pitch for the storage medium based upon the width of the write element may also account for different skew angles of the head as the head is positioned from inner-diameters to outer-diameters. Thus, the track pitch may be allowed to decrease or increase from the inner-diameters to the outer-diameters in accordance with the skew angle of the head.