According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording apparatus has a magnetic recording media including a substrate having protrusions and recesses corresponding to a servo zone and a data zone and a magnetic layer deposited thereon, and a read/write head including a pair of magnetic shields and a giant magnetoresistive element, in which a track pitch of the media ranges 20 to 300 nm, a linear velocity of the magnetic recording media is 11 m/s, and a distance m from the magnetic shield to the magnetic layer on the protrusions of the media and a distance d between the magnetic layer on the protrusions and that on the recesses in the servo zone of the media are satisfies the condition that the value of d/m is 0.2 or more and 3 or less.