A method for secondary-actuator failure-detection and recovery in a dual-stage actuator disk drive includes running a calibration test by the servo control processor and measuring the position of the secondary actuator relative to its neutral position in response to the calibration test. The secondary-actuator failure detection and calibration test can be performed on a regular schedule or at selected times, such as at disk drive start-up. With the primary actuator biased at a test location, such as a crash stop or a load/unload ramp, the servo control processor generates a test signal to the secondary actuator and receives a relative-position signal (RPS) from the relative-position sensor in response to the test signal. The test comprises two measurements: a measurement of the secondary actuator static characteristics, and a measurement of the secondary actuator dynamic characteristics.