Embodiments of the invention lower the servo sector's share of each track
and ensure that servo sector numbers are reliably determined. According
to the embodiment, in the servo sector number (SSA) section of each servo
sector, servo sector number information whose bit length (k bits) is
shorter than the bit length required to express the servo sector number
itself is preliminarily written. The servo sector number of each servo
sector is determined by using the servo sector number information in m
successive servo sectors, that is, a total of m.times.k bits of
information. Note that they satisfy the m(2.sup.m.times.k-1).ltoreq.N
relation where N denotes the total number of servo sectors per track.