The invention is directed to patterned magnetic media for use in magnetic recording and data storage, and various conditioning techniques that can be used to magnetically condition the patterns. For example, a medium can be formed to exhibit a pattern of surface variations defined by patterned areas and non-patterned areas. Techniques are described for magnetically conditioning the patterned areas. The techniques may be useful for perpendicular patterned media, i.e., media having patterns formed on the media surface and having a magnetic anisotropy that is perpendicular to the plane of the medium. In particular, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy has been found to be an important factor that allows effective conditioning of patterned features having relatively small widths.