A disk drive having a drive housing, a storage disk that is rotatably coupled to the drive housing, and a slider assembly that includes a head and a slider mover. The head reads data from the storage disk during a read operation and writes data to the storage disk during a write operation. The slider mover maintains the head at a read HtD spacing during the read operation, at a pre-write HtD spacing during the read operation prior to the write operation, at a write HtD spacing during the write operation, and at an idle HtD spacing when the drive is not performing the read operation or the write operation. The disk drive includes a drive circuitry that directs a read power level to the slider mover to maintain the head at the read HtD spacing, a pre-write power level to maintain the head at the pre-write HtD spacing, a write power level to maintain the head at the write HtD spacing, and a idle power level to maintains the head at the idle HtD spacing.