Slider having leading surface for contaminant deflection

The present invention relates to disc drive data storage systems and, more particularly, to a disc drive data storage system having a slider that reduces particulate contamination at the head-disc interface. A disc head slider includes a slider body having a disc-facing surface and a leading surface adjacent to the disc facing surface. The disc facing surface has leading-most edge and first and second side edges. A bearing surface is formed on the disc facing surface. A debris deflection surface is formed along the leading surface, which is spaced vertically from the leading-most edge with respect to the disc facing surface and has a tangent that forms an angle with the bearing surface of less than ninety degrees.