Embodiments of the invention reduce the noise occurring when the lubricating layer on the magnetic disk is smoothed. In one embodiment, a magnetic disk drive has a read/write mode parameter table for generating an electric current to be supplied to a voice coil motor when the magnetic head performs data read/write operations on the magnetic disk. The magnetic disk drive also has a smoothing mode parameter table for generating another electric current to be supplied to the voice coil motor when neither a data read nor a write operation is performed on the magnetic disk. The CPU refers to either the read/write mode parameter table or the smoothing mode parameter table and controls the electric current to be supplied to the voice coil motor. When a lubricating-layer smoothing event occurs, the CPU refers to the smoothing mode parameter table and after generating the associated electric current to be supplied to the voice coil motor, moves the magnetic head to seek between the outermost and innermost tracks on the surface of the magnetic disk to perform a smoothing process for the lubricating layer.