Patent ID: 8149670

Claim:
A gap pull-in method for an optical disk apparatus comprising a light source emitting light, a light focusing element arranged to face a disk and to focus the light emitted from the light source on the disk, and an actuator to move the light focusing element towards or away from the disk, the gap pull-in method comprising: applying an actuator driving voltage to the actuator to move the light focusing element toward the disk; detecting a gap between the light focusing element and the disk; maintaining the applied actuator driving voltage when the gap between the light focusing element and the disk becomes a first distance which is shorter than a distance at which a near-field effect begins; detecting runout of the disk while maintaining the actuator driving voltage; and performing a gap servo operation when the gap between the light focusing element and the disk becomes a second distance which is shorter than the first distance as a result of the detected runout.