A magnetic recording and reading device includes a magnetic recording medium having a substrate and at least one magnetic recording layer formed above the substrate, a magnetic head enabling a data transfer rate of more than 50 MB/s and a recording density of more than 5 Gb/in2 on the magnetic recording medium, and a R/W-IC. The magnetic head includes a recording head and a reading head. The at least one magnetic recording layer contains (1) at least one metal element selected from a first group consisting of Co, Fe and Ni as a primary component, and (2) at least two elements selected from a second group consisting of Cr, Mo, W, V, Nb, Ta, Ti, Zr, Hf, Pd, Pt, Rh, Ir and Si.