Magnetic recording medium including a patterned intermediate layer and a non-patterned soft magnetic layer and manufacturing method thereof

A manufacturing method of a magnetic recording medium comprising:

• an object-to-be-processed preparation step of preparing an object to be processed in which a soft magnetic layer, an intermediate layer, and a recording layer that has magnetic anisotropy in a direction perpendicular to surface are formed in this order over a substrate;
• and
• a recording layer processing step of processing the object to be processed by etching to divide the recording layer into a number of recording elements by a predetermined concavo-convex pattern such that the recording elements are formed to have a predetermined shape of tracks in a data region and the recording elements extend continuously over entire width of the tracks, wherein
• in the recording layer processing step, concave portions of the concavo-convex pattern are formed to a midway in a thickness direction of the intermediate layer so that the recording layer is divided by the concave portions through to a face on a side of the substrate, the intermediate layer is continuous on a face on the side of the substrate, the concave portions of the concavo-convex pattern are not formed in the soft magnetic layer, the soft magnetic layer is a continuous film, and the magnetic recording medium does not comprise any soft magnetic film in which the concave portions of the concavo-convex pattern are formed.