A system for identifying and compensating for non-linear transition shift in a magnetic medium data storage device is disclosed. The non-linear transition shift compensation system includes a non-linear transition shift estimation module adapted to generate non-linear transition shift estimates for specific bit patterns. The system further includes a pre-compensation module adapted to adjust the temporal spacing of binary transitions written to the magnetic medium based on the non-linear transition shift estimates generated by the non-linear transition shift estimation module for specific bit patterns corresponding to bit patterns appearing in the data being written to the magnetic medium.