A compensation element (317) in a feedforward line in a dual stage control system for a data storage system compensates for the undesired transient motion of a first positioning element (i.e., a coarse actuator). The compensation element is a transfer function that is applied from the first positioning element's control signal (U_v) to a second positioning elements's (306) (i.e., microactuator's) input. The transfer function is defined as formula (I) where ^V_nom (z) is a transfer function model of the nominial portion of the first positioning element, ^V_res (z) is a transfer function model of the resonance portion of the first positioning element, and ^M(z) is a transfer function model of the dynamics of the second positioning element. This feedforward transfer function effectively cancels the resonances of the first positioning element without requiring the inversion of the resonance transfer function.