Protrusion of head elements to an air bearing surface is effectively reduced and their contact with a recording medium is thereby prevented by forming a level gap (concave) of about 3 nm in a multilayered protective film on the air bearing surface in a part matching an inductive write thin film head in a recording/reproducing separated type magnetic head and thereby offsetting protrusion of the head elements to the air bearing surface due to thermal deformation of the heads.

A magnetic disk device and a flying slider, having a magnetic head for reading and writing information, are disclosed. The magnetic head slider includes flying pads of a stepped configuration for flying the slider, and each of the flying pads has a flat surface portion and a step surface recessed from this flat surface portion through a microscopic step. Microscopic projections are formed on the step surface. The height of the microscopic projections are higher than or substantially equal to the height of the step. With this construction, the slider is less liable to be turned to lean forward because of the provision of the microscopic projections, and beside a front edge of the step surface will not damage a magnetic disk surface. A variation of the flying height can be reduced by a negative pressure produced at the rear side of each microscopic projection. Therefore, there can be provided the magnetic disk device having high reliability and a large capacity.

Disclosed is a hovering-type head slider in which the variation in static hovering distance is reduced as much as possible, thereby making it possible to obtain a hovering distance which is constant with respect to variation in the skew angle and in the linear velocity. The hovering-type head slider includes two rails 16 and 17 which are formed on either side portions of the surface thereof opposed to a recording medium and which serve as air bearing surfaces, a tapered portion provided on the air flow inlet side of each rail, and a magnetic head 15a provided on an end surface on the air flow out let side, wherein the rails 16 and 17 branched into branch rail portions which extend obliquely toward the air flow outlet end from a position near the center with respect to the direction of the air flow.

A thin-film magnetic head comprises a first shield layer, an MR element, a second shield layer, a recording gap layer, a top pole layer and a thin-film coil. The MR element is placed on the first shield layer, being insulated from the first shield layer. The second shield layer is magnetically connected to the first shield layer, and is located to face toward a part of the first shield layer closest to an air bearing surface, the MR element being placed between the second shield layer and the part of the first shield layer, the second shield layer being insulated from the MR element. The top pole layer is magnetically connected to the first shield layer, and is located on the second shield layer, the gap layer being placed between the second shield layer and the top pole layer. The thin-film coil is located on a side of the second shield layer, being insulated from the shield layers and the top pole layer.

A magnetic head slider includes a magnetic head for recording/reproducing information from/into a magnetic disk and a slider on which the magnetic head is mounted. The slider has a first surface provided at an air-inflow side and a second surface provided at an air-outflow side. Projections are provided at the air-inflow side with respect to the first surface on a surface while faces the magnetic disk upon read/write operation of the magnetic head slider.