A suspension supports a slider for use with a microactuator. The suspension includes a suspension arm attachment pad and a slider attachment pad, connected together by microbeams. A first plurality of microbeams run side-by-side and extend on one side of the suspension, and a second plurality of microbeams run side-by-side and extending on the other side of the suspension. The microbeams preferably include a web and at least one flange which is wider than the web, such as in an “I” shape. The suspension is fabricated out of a single crystal silicon wafer with photolithographic techniques, including doping a surface of the wafer and etching the interior of the wafer to form the “I” shaped microbeams. The microbeams of the present invention make the suspension more flexible in the lateral direction while supporting the preload force on the slider in the vertical direction.