According to one embodiment, there is provided a perpendicular magnetic disk apparatus having a magnetic disk including a soft underlayer and a perpendicular magnetic recording layer, and a magnetic head having a write element including a main pole, a return pole and an exciting coil, and a read element including a magnetoresistive film and a pair of shield films disposed to sandwich the magnetoresistive film, in which a magnetic read track width (MRW) which is read by the magnetoresistive film is set to be smaller than a magnetic write track width (MWW) for signals recorded at a maximum frequency. |