In order to meet the growing demands for higher storage density as well as lower noise level, the spindles in hard disk drives are to be supported by hydrodynamic bearings in place of conventional ball-type ones. However, the existing models are inappropriate to apply to accurate prediction of vibration characteristics because the HDD spindle tends to take quite a complex shape to secure its performance and cost-effectiveness. In this context, this paper treats analysis of free and forced vibrations of such-designed HDD spindles based on more sophisticated models and validations via experiments. Remarkably, to this end all the components in the system are modeled as elastic adopting the finite element method.