The dynamic response of the head arm assembly (HAA) of a hard disk drive to an impact load was obtained from a 3D non-linear finite element model using ANSYS/LS-DYNA and from experiments using a modified levitation mass method (LMM). In the finite element model, the impact load was created by modeling the mass as a rigid body and making it collide with the HAA. The velocity, displacement, acceleration, and inertial force of the mass were then obtained from the time history data of the finite element analysis. In the LMM, a mass that was levitated with an aerostatic linear bearing, and hence encountered negligible friction, was made to collide with the actuator arm, resulting in a dynamic bending test for the arm. During the collision, the Doppler frequency shift of the laser beam reflected from the mass was accurately measured with an optical interferometer. The velocity, displacement, acceleration, and inertial force of the mass were accurately calculated from the measured time-varying Doppler frequency shift. A good correlation between the experimental data and FEA results was observed. The FEA was also used to investigate the dynamic response of the HAA to impact by different masses.