Patent ID: 7864475

Claim:
A thermally assisted magnetic recording system comprising: a patterned recording medium having a magnetic recording layer in which recording units magnetically separated from each other are arranged along a track and a trial writing area; a thermally assisted magnetic recording head on which a magnetic recording head for applying a recording magnetic field to the patterned recording medium, a heating mechanism for heating a portion of area of the patterned recording medium by an output light from a light source, and a reproducing head are mounted; a unit that controls a heating power by the light source; and a unit that applies a recording magnetic field from the magnetic recording head to perform trial writing while monotonically changing the heating power by the light source with respect to a row of the recording units of the trial writing area, that determines (1) a minimum heating power of recording that is a boundary power between a heating power of recording and a heating power of non-recording, and (2) a maximum heating power of recording that is a boundary power between a heating power of recording and a heating power by which recorded information of an adjacent pattern located in a direction along the track is deleted, from a reproduction signal obtained by reproducing the trial writing area by the reproducing head, and that decides the heating power emitted by the light source.