A spindle motor of a disk drive includes a stator with windings and a rotor configured to rotate a disk of the disk drive. It is determined whether the disk drive is in a falling state while the disk rotates, and when the disk drive is in the falling state, a negative torque is applied to the rotor to reduce an angular velocity of the disk. When the angular velocity of the disk reaches a threshold angular velocity, an electrical short is caused across the windings of the stator to further reduce the angular velocity of the disk.