Patent ID: 6920007

Claim:
A control method for a magnetic disk drive including a magnetic disk medium, a slider mounting thereon a magnetic head facing said magnetic disk medium, support members for supporting said slider, an actuator for rotatably supporting said support members, an electronic circuit for controlling drive of said actuator and signal processing, and a holding member for holding said slider, the method comprising: a setting step for setting a parameter for driving said actuator in each of plural stepwise movements of said slider following a shape of said holding member; an unload step for starting a process for holding said slider on said holding member while reading information from said magnetic disk medium through said magnetic head, before causing said slider to move from said magnetic disk medium onto said holding member; and a load step for causing said magnetic head to read the information from said magnetic disk medium while following said holding member, before causing said slider to land from said holding member onto said magnetic disk medium.