Patent ID: 7215502

Claim:
A magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus comprising: a magnetic head having at least a main magnetic pole; a magnetic recording medium; and a drive device body that can operate to rotationally drive said magnetic recording medium in a constant direction and cause said magnetic head to be movable in substantially radial directions of said magnetic recording medium, wherein said magnetic recording medium has data tracks for recording data information and servo tracks for recording tracking servo information, said magnetic recording medium being a discrete medium in which groups of said tracks are formed as a plurality of recording elements divided in a predetermined convex-concave pattern, said data tracks and said servo tracks of said magnetic recording medium are formed by convex-portion perpendicular magnetic recording layers and a section of each of said convex-portion perpendicular magnetic recording layers in a track width direction (track radial direction) has a trapezoidal shape, an outline shape of said main magnetic pole at an air bearing surface of said magnetic head is a shape that is continuously reduced in width from its trailing end located on a downstream side of a rotation direction of said magnetic recording medium toward its leading end located on an upstream side thereof, said magnetic recording medium and said magnetic head are in a relationship of disposition such that said main magnetic pole causes skew angles θ with respect to circumferential directions of at least some of said data tracks of said magnetic recording medium, and given that a data track pitch of said magnetic recording medium is Tp, a width of an upper surface of each of said convex-portion perpendicular magnetic recording layers of said data tracks is Tw, a width of the trailing end of said main magnetic pole in said magnetic head is W 1 , a width of the leading end of said main magnetic pole in said magnetic head is W 2 , a thickness (length in a track circumferential direction) of said main magnetic pole in said magnetic head is t, an inclination angle of the trapezoidal shape of the section of each of said convex-portion perpendicular magnetic recording layers in the track width direction (track radial direction) is η, and a thickness of each of said convex-portion perpendicular magnetic recording layers is δ, a relationship of an inequality (1) is satisfied when, as a precondition, a relationship among θ, W 1 , W 2 , and t satisfies a condition of θ>tan −1 (W 1 −W 2 )/2·t, said inequality (1) given as Tp−Tw ≧( t 2 +( W 1 −W 2) 2 /4) 1/2 ·sin {θ−tan −1 ( W 1 −W 2)/2 t}+ 2δ/tan η.