Patent ID: 7190547

Claim:
A hard disk drive, comprising: a microactuator for positioning a slider and read-write head over a rotating disk drive media surface; a piezo-electric device included in the microactuator and providing for electronic control of the mechanical position of said slider and read-write head over said rotating disk drive media surface, and providing for a piezo-electric effect output signal if said head mechanically contacts with said rotating disk drive media surface; means for interacting to extract a sense signal from a differentiation of a microdrive voltage from a servo controller and a voltage on a microactuator control bundle connected to the microactuator; a means for sensing mechanical contacts of said slider and read-write head with said rotating disk drive media surface interpreted from said sense signal; a sensed feedback signal produced by the means for sensing and indicating a contact condition of said slider and read-write head with said rotating disk drive media surface.