Patent ID: 6950267

Claim:
A disk drive comprising: (a) a disk; (b) a slider comprising a transducer actuated over the disk for generating a write signal when writing data to the disk and for generating a read signal when reading data from the disk; and (c) a disk controller for generating a pole tip protrusion (PTP) measurement by: writing a first data sequence along a first section of the disk; reading the first data sequence from the first section during a first read operation and generating a first signal measurement; heating the transducer by writing a second data sequence along a second section of the disk preceding the first section, wherein heating the transducer causes at least part of the slider to protrude toward the disk; while the part of the slider is protruding toward the disk, reading the first data sequence from the first section during a second read operation and generating a second signal measurement; and generating the PTP measurement in response to the first and second signal measurements.