Improved deceleration control for a disk drive is provided. A deceleration profile is selected based on a present velocity (v_i), a present position (x_i) and a BEMF constant associated with a voice coil motor (VCM). A control signal is supplied to a VCM driver in an attempt to have a read/write head follow the selected deceleration profile. As new present velocities and new present positions are obtained, these steps are repeated until the seek operation transitions from the deceleration phase to a settle phase. This description is not intended to be a complete description of, or limit the scope of, the invention. Other features, aspects, and objects of the invention can be obtained from a review of the specification, the figures and the claims.