The thirst to design high density magnetic storage media with improved efficiency has always been one of the basic challenges in computer industry. In this paper, present challenges of magnetic storage media and different parameters that can affect the properties of magnetic nanowires have been investigated in detail. The magnetic nanowires are the promising candidate for the future high density magnetic storage media. So far the grain isolation is a problem while using thin film magnetic storage media. Further, during miniaturization, superparamagnetic limit is reached due to increasing thermal effects at this scale which makes the magnetic grains of magnetic nanowires susceptible to thermal fluctuations. To overcome this problem of superparamagnetism and grain isolation, nanowires with high coercivity, remanent magnetization and thermal stability are thought to be the alternatives. Alloy and multilayered magnetic nanowires prepared by some less expensive technique with suitable magnetic and thermal properties can serve to overcome this challenge. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.