Definition: stiction

(STatic frICTION) A failure in early hard drives that caused the read/write heads to stick to the platters. The coating on the platter heated up and liquefied and could become gummy when the disk cooled down. Stiction was a problem when the read/write heads always landed on the platter, known as "contact-start-stop" (CSS). Although texturing the platters helped, it impeded making the bit density greater, and texturing only the landing zone created other problems. The solution was to move the slider and read/write head onto a ramp. See load/unload ramp.