The effect of particulate contamination on friction and wear between a negative-pressure picoslider and a laser-textured disk was studied. Particles of different concentrations, materials and sizes were injected to the head-disk interface (HDI), consisting of disks with various textures, at the same speed. In a contaminated environment, durability of head-disk interface gradually decreased as the particle concentration increased. Large particles caused HDI failure early and resulted in an extensive damage to the slider and disk surfaces. Hard particles also caused HDI failure earlier and damages more extensive than soft ones. Based on the test results, mechanisms of HDI failure with picoslider were presented.