Development of shock proof suspension [disk drive]

High speed video camera observation of a slider behaviour after an external shock revealed that the slider jumps first and then re-contacts with the disk at its leading edge. We found an imprint at the re-contact position on the disk. We developed a suspension system that has a roof in the load beam that reduces the re-contact angle and the contact stress. We found that a magnetic disk device incorporating the system sustained no read errors for the external shocks up to 700 G.