Patent ID: 7064659

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a disk for a disk drive comprising the steps of: calibrating a glide test system using one or more calibration disks to determine a first rotation rate for glide testing at which a glide head flies at a predetermined height and a second rotation rate for confirmation testing at which a glide head collides with asperities on a calibration disk; and glide testing disks produced by the fabrication process using the first rotation rate for glide testing and on selected disks performing a confirmation test to detect changes in performance of the glide test system including the steps of: moving the glide head to a predetermined track; determining a clearance rotation rate for the selected disk by reducing the rotation rate of the disk until collisions with asperities on the disk are detected; and repeating the calibration process when the clearance rotation rate for the selected disk is outside of a predetermined range.