Patent ID: 8270122

Claim:
A magnetic recording and reproducing device comprising: a perpendicular recording media having a perpendicular magnetization layer; means for rotating the perpendicular recording media; a magnetic recording read head having a read head, and a perpendicular write head disposed adjacent to the read head; and means for processing signals to be written or read to the perpendicular recording media by the magnetic recording read head, wherein the read head has a multilayer structure formed by laminating a first magnetoresistive sensor having a first free layer, a differential gap layer, and a second magnetoresistive sensor having a second free layer in this order from a substrate side, the read head also having a pair of electrodes provided on an outward layer of the multilayer structure and a pair of magnetic shields provided on the outside of the respective electrodes, wherein the first and second magnetoresistive sensors have resistance changes of opposite phase to a magnetic field in one direction, thereby enabling differential operation, wherein the perpendicular write head has a main pole and a return pole, and wherein the processed signals have a bit length set to have a ratio of the inside distance between the first and second free layers to said bit length which is 0.6 or more and 1.6 or less, wherein each of the pair of magnetic shields is formed via each of the pair of electrodes on the outward layer of the multilayer structure of the read head, and wherein waveforms of a single output of the first magnetoresistive sensor and a single output of the second magnetoresistive sensor are rectangular reproduction waveforms having said bit length.