Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention is a disk drive comprising a rotating disk with a recording surface, a transducer in communication with the surface and swept radially over the surface by a servo-actuator, a variable gain read amplifier connected to the transducer, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) attached to the variable gain amplifier, an erase frequency oscillator coupled to the transducer for erasing of the disk surface, a memory for storing digital outputs appearing at the ADC, and a controller for signaling the servo-actuator to move to such radial positions that result in transducer read amplitudes that are a percentage of previous read amplitudes represented in the digital memory.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing thin-film magnetic transducers in which the transducers are deposited onto a substrate member adjacent a finished and lapped surface in a manner such that no further lapping of the slider rail adjacent the transducer is required during manufacture. The method includes forming recesses on the substrate member to define slider rails and then forming air bearing surfaces on each such rail.