In this paper we present new results for the dynamics of a problem for the interaction of a compressible gas flow with a movable rigid surface. Compressible lubrication theory is applied to describe the dynamics of the vertical motion of air bearing sliders used in computer hard disk drives. In the limit of large bearing number we show this problem can be reduced to a nonlinear integrodifferential equation. Linear stability analysis and perturbation methods show that over the range of possible slider positions there is an infinite sequence of Hopf bifurcations yielding stable large amplitude periodic orbits. The dynamics of near-crash behavior and interaction with a moving disk surface are also addressed. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.