With use of (G)MR head, thermal asperity (TA) has been a big concern in drive industry. In this study, we investigated several factors of heads and disks which affects the TA sensitivity of the drive. TA experiments were conducted by introducing the particles on the drives using a particle injection chamber. It was found that the slider ABS shape can help to reduce TA or contamination in the head/media interface. However, TA sensitivity of the drive mainly depend on the intrinsic property of (G)MR sensor. GMR head is much less sensitive to TA compared with MR head. However, in case that the same bias current was applied for both of MR and GMR head, TA sensitivity of GMR head became almost identical to that of MR head. Therefore it was found that the bias current is a dominant factor in determining TA sensitivity of the head. TA sensitivity of different types of disks was also studied. The scratch resistance of the carbon overcoat layer is the one of the main factors which influence TA rejection capability of the disks.