Disk drive and method for controlling clearance in the disk drive

Abstract

A disk drive. The disk drive includes a disk configured to store data, a slider configured to fly in proximity to the disk, and a magnetic-recording head on the slider configured to access the disk. The disk drive also includes a moving mechanism configured to support and to move the head-slider, an adjustment portion configured to adjust clearance between the magnetic-recording head and the disk, and a controller configured to control the adjustment portion to control the clearance. The controller is configured to perform clearance control in a first mode in an operation selected from the group consisting of reading user data and writing user data according to a change in fly height of the slider after a load operation, and subsequently is configured to perform clearance control in a second mode in an operation selected from the group consisting of reading user data and writing user data.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.