The present invention provides a method and apparatus for recovering data in
a disk drive following a read error. At least a portion of the actuator arm tip
is heated. Thermal expansion reduces the read-head-to-disk spacing, increasing
the likelihood of success when a re-read of the data is attempted. In one approach,
a heater is operatively coupled to the tip. In one aspect, a write head is provided
with write current in order to heat the tip. Data which may be modified or overwritten
when providing write current to the write head is preferably read and buffered
prior to the write operation, for later re-writing to the disk.