The power required by a voice coil motor (VCM) to maintain the head in the data region of a disk drive during an idle mode is further reduced. The current supplied to the VCM is switched on and off. This takes advantage of the inherent capacitance and inductance in the VCM, which maintains a current after the current supply is switched off. The current will slowly decay, with it being switched on again before it reaches a level where the average value won't offset the flex bias. In one embodiment, the current is maintained in a single direction, to offset the flex bias which pushes in one direction. Digital switches are used to reduce the power consumption of the control circuitry.