Definition: Latency


The period of time that the read/write heads wait for the disk to rotate to the correct position to access the desired data. For a disk rotating at 5200 RPM, the average latency is 5.8 milliseconds; or, the average time delay between the head arriving on track and the data rotating to the head. (Calculated as one-half the revolution period.)




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Data Recovery Fact

Striping

Spreading data over several disks on a bit, byte, or cylinder level. The intention is to improve performance by letting the positions and read/write operations overlap in time.

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