Method and apparatus for providing an intelligent settle scheme for a hard disk drive with dual stage actuators

The present invention relates to the control of a hard disk drive having a dual stage actuator. In particular, the present invention relates to controlling the position of a dual stage actuator following a seek operation. A method and apparatus for controlling the position of a computer hard disk drive transducer head are provided. According to the invention, an initial value compensation scheme is applied to a signal derived from available states of the transducer head when the control mode of the disk drive switches from a track seek mode to a settling mode. In particular, at least portions of a the compensation signal are provided to both a coarse actuator and a microactuator associated with the transducer head. According to one embodiment of the present invention, high frequency components of the compensation signal are generally provided to the microactuator, while low frequency components of the compensation signal are generally provided to the coarse actuator. The method and apparatus of the present invention provide a computer hard disk drive having improved performance due to reduced settling times and improved audible characteristics.