Patent ID: 6985317

Claim:
A method for estimating the reliability of a disk drive, comprising the steps of: measuring the head-to-disk clearance of at least one head at a first slider airbearing condition, comprising the steps of: loading the disk drive into a vacuum chamber; establishing a first air pressure within the vacuum chamber; starting the disk drive; writing a plurality of test patterns from the at least one head to at least one cylinder and at least one sector on the disk; reading the plurality of test patterns from the at least one cylinder and at least one sector of the disk by the at least one head, wherein the head-to-disk clearance is measured during the read operation; and storing the head-to-disk clearance measurements in a first data array; measuring the head-to-disk clearance of the at least one head at a second slider airbearing condition; calculating a head-to-disk clearance change that occurs between the first slider airbearing condition and the second slider airbearing condition for each of the at least one heads; and determining if the head-to-disk clearance change for each of the at least one head exceeds a predetermined threshold for successful drive operation.