Patent ID: 8730608

Claim:
A method of reducing flying height in a disk drive apparatus, the method comprising steps of: providing at least one read/write head, the read/write head comprising at least one read transducer element, at least one write transducer element, at least one read heater element, and at least one write heater element; configuring the read and write heater elements such that heat dissipated in the read heater element is greater than heat dissipated in the write heater element; and supplying a current to the read and write heater elements via a same control pad during at least a portion of a read operation and during at least a portion of a write operation, wherein during the write operation, a protrusion of the read/write head toward a surface of a magnetic storage medium corresponding to the read/write head attributable to the write transducer element and the write heater element is greater than a protrusion of the read/write head toward the surface of the magnetic storage medium attributable to the read heater element, and wherein during the read operation, a protrusion of the read/write head toward a surface of the magnetic storage medium attributable to the read heater element and the read transducer element is greater than a protrusion of the read/write head attributable to the write heater element.