A glide head includes a transducer mounted on a side surface, e.g., the leading side, as opposed to the top surface of the glide head slider. Thus, a suspension arm may be mounted to the top surface of a small glide head slider, e.g., thirty percent, without interference from the transducer. The glide head slider may include a notch or groove on the side surface into which the transducer is at least partially inserted to assist in securely mounting the transducer to the glide head slider. The height of the glide head slider is increased to accommodate the thickness of the notch, and thus, the glide head slider may have a height to length ratio of forty percent or greater. For example, a thirty percent glide head slider may have a height to length ratio of approximately seventy percent. The transducer is laterally mounted to the side surface of the glide head slider such that an axis between the collectors of the transducer is horizontally oriented. Laterally mounting the transducer to the side surface of the glide head slider prevents wires extending from the collectors from undesirably and uncontrollably extending above or below the top or bottom surfaces of the glide head slider.

A glide test head assembly glide test head assembly in which the mounting orientation of the piezo element has been modified. The glide test head assembly mounts the piezo element with one of its major surfaces coincident with the surface of the laterally-extending wing on which it is mounted. The mounting orientation of the piezo element allows the piezo element to be mounted fully on the laterally-extending wing of the glide test head assembly, raising the resonant frequency of the piezo element, decreasing the glide test head assembly's sensitivity to excitation caused by air flow disturbances, and increasing the reliability of glide test results.

A suspension assembly for supporting a read/write head/slider assembly adjacent to a rotating storage disk with dynamically adjustable flying height for use within a hard disk drive is provided. The suspension assembly includes a generally elongated loadbeam that has a baseplate defined at a first end thereof and a gimbaled flexure portion defined at a second end thereof. The flexure portion includes a pair of flexure legs and a flexure tongue. The pair of flexure legs extend from the flexure tongue and each leg attaches to an opposite side of the loadbeam. The flexure tongue generally provides a mounting surface for the read/write head/slider assembly. Strips of thermal-expansion material are attached to the flexure portion. These strips are connected to a power source via a power conductor. When the strips are energized, they expand and deform a portion of the flexure portion. This deformation of the flexure portion is transposed to the read/write head/slider assembly for dynamically adjusting the flying height thereof.

A glide head for testing the surface of a magnetic disk includes a slider, a type 2 piezo-electric transducer mounted on the slider, and a type 1 piezo-electric transducer mounted on the type 2 piezo-electric transducer. The piezo-electric transducers are mechanically coupled to one another but not electrically coupled to one another. The electrical voltage provided by the type 2 piezo-electric transducer is more sensitive to magnetic disk surface defects than if the type 1 piezo-electric transducer were not present.

A test simulation circuit includes a simulated read/write head with a magnet shield and a magnetoresistive sensor exposed at a lapped surface. The test simulation circuit also includes first and second electrical test path connected respectively to the magnet shield and the magnetoresistive sensor. The second electrical test path is electrically isolated from the first electrical test path.