Single crystalline Co nanowire arrays with different orientations were grown within porous anodic aluminamembranes by a pulsed electrodeposition technique. It was found that the orientation of nanowires can becontrolled by controlling the deposition parameters and the magnetic properties depend strongly on theorientation of the nanowires arrays. The growth mechanism was discussed in detail. High-density, large aspect-ratio and single crystalline Co nanowire arrays with the proper values of coercivity may find promisingapplication as a perpendicular magnetic recording medium.