Dissipation of liquid droplets in a magnetic disk drive

A method of performing a droplet removal process in a magnetic disk drive to dissipate liquid droplets formed on a slider during operation, the method comprising:

• unloading the slider from a magnetic disk in the magnetic disk drive to initiate the droplet removal process;
• applying a heating power to a Thermal Fly-height Control (TFC) heating element in the slider to heat the slider to a threshold temperature to dissipate a liquid droplet;
• and
• loading the slider back onto the magnetic disk.

A magnetic disk drive operable to perform a droplet removal process to dissipate liquid droplets formed on a slider during operation, the magnetic disk drive comprising:

• a magnetic disk;
• a slider having a read/write head operable to read data from and write data to the magnetic disk, wherein the slider includes a Thermal Fly-height Control (TFC) heating element operable to cause a protrusion of a read/write head toward the magnetic disk;
• a ramp assembly;
• and
• a control system operable to unload the slider from the magnetic disk and onto the ramp assembly to initiate the droplet removal process, to apply a heating power to the TFC heating element in the slider for a threshold time period to heat the slider to a threshold temperature to dissipate a liquid droplet, and to load the slider from the ramp assembly onto the magnetic disk.