Head and disk drive with same

A head comprising:

• a slider comprising a facing surface opposed to a surface of a rotatable recording medium;
• and
• a head section on the slider, configured to record and reproduce data on and from the recording medium,
• the facing surface of the slider having a first direction along airflow and a second direction perpendicular to the first direction,
• the facing surface of the slider comprising
• a leading step on an inflow side of the slider;
• a leading pad on the leading step,
• a pair of side steps extending from the leading step toward an outflow end of the slider and opposed to each other across a space in the second direction;
• side pads on the side steps to be continuous with the leading pad, individually;
• a trailing step on an outflow side of the slider, provided with the head section;
• and
• induction grooves continuously extending from the leading pad to the side pads, individually, configured to guide introduced airflow,
• the slider further comprising a center rail extending in the first direction from the leading step toward the trailing step and
• a guide groove formed in the center rail to extend in the first direction.

A disk drive comprising:

• a drive unit configured to support and rotate a disk recording medium;
• a head configured to record data on the recording medium and to reproduce data from the recording medium;
• and
• a head actuator supporting the head, the head comprising a slider comprising a facing surface opposed to the recording medium and a head portion on the slider,
• the facing surface of the slider having a first direction along airflow and a second direction perpendicular to the first direction,
• the facing surface of the slider comprising
• a leading step on an inflow side of the slider,
• a leading pad on the leading step,
• a pair of side steps extending from the leading step toward an outflow end of the slider and opposed to each other across a space in the second direction,
• side pads on the side steps to be continuous with the leading pad, individually,
• a trailing step on an outflow side of the slider, provided with the head portion, and
• induction grooves continuously extending from the leading pad to the side pads, individually, and configured to guide introduced airflow,
• wherein each of the induction grooves is formed by connecting a first groove, a second groove deeper than the first groove, a third groove intermediate in depth between the first and second grooves and a fourth groove shallower than the third groove the grooves being sequentially arranged from an inflow end of the leading step toward an outflow end of each corresponding side step.