Magnetic disk drive and method for registering defective sector using timing control of pattern writing

Embodiments in accordance with the present invention relate to suppressing effects of the rotational jitter of a rotating medium during self-writing of patterns on the medium. In one embodiment, patterns are written on a track TE first. While a clock frequency is modulated using the difference between the readout time and target time of each pattern PE on the track TE, patterns PF are written on a track TF after a calculated delay time from the readout of each pattern PE. During pattern writing on the track TF, any timing errors of the patterns PE are stored into memory. While the target time for each pattern PF on the track TF is being corrected using the stored timing errors of the patterns PE and the clock frequency is being modulated using the difference between the readout time and corrected target time of each pattern PF, patterns PG are written on a track TG after a calculated delay time from the readout of each pattern PF.