We introduce a new method to perform sequential measurements of the in‐plane and out‐of‐plane magnetic force gradient components using the same topographic scan lines to preserve geometrical position registry at the nanometer scale. This method applies both flexural and torsional resonant oscillations of the same atomic force microscope cantilever probe for the determination of respective vertical and lateral force gradient components in a sequence of scans. Using magnetic domains in a hard drive with known stray field, as simulated by finite element analysis, we have demonstrated that the two oscillation modes provide complementary information about the orientation of the magnetic momentum of the probe tips. The matching of both vertical and lateral force gradient data with that of the finite element simulation occurs only at a unique orientation of tip magnetization. Furthermore, it was found that force gradient measurements using torsion mode are able to determine in‐plane anisotropy. © 2003 American Institute of Physics