Hard disk drive apparatus to control flying height of magnetic head and method thereof

A hard disk drive apparatus, comprising:

• a disk;
• a magnetic head to read data of the disk or to record data on the disk;
• a flying height maintaining unit to control a flying height of the magnetic head and to uniformly maintain the flying height above the disk;
• and
• a controller to control the flying height maintaining unit to maintain a second height at which a write operation or a read operation is performed by the magnetic head as the flying height of the magnetic head when a seeking distance is smaller than a threshold in a seek mode.

A method of controlling a flying height of a magnetic head in a hard disk drive apparatus to uniformly maintain the flying height of the magnetic head, the method comprising:

• determining whether the magnetic head is in a seek mode seeking a target track at which a write operation or a read operation is to be performed;
• measuring a seeking distance which is a distance between a current track position, where the magnetic head begins to seek, and a target track position when the magnetic head is in the seek mode;
• comparing the seeking distance with a threshold;
• when the seeking distance is smaller than the threshold, controlling the magnetic head to maintain the second height as the flying height of the magnetic head at which a write operation or a read operation is to be performed by the magnetic head, in the seek mode;
• and
• when the seeking distance is larger than the threshold, controlling the magnetic head to maintain a first height that is higher than the second height as the flying height of the magnetic head in the seek mode.