Patent ID: 7571279

Claim:
A data storage system, comprising: a storage controller; and a set of disk drives coupled to the storage controller, each disk drive having magnetic platter, each disk drive being capable of storing data onto and retrieving data from the magnetic platter while the magnetic platter turns at a predefined maximum speed, and each disk drive being configured to: receive a command to access a storage location on the magnetic platter from the storage controller, increase rotational speed of the magnetic platter to the predefined maximum speed in response to the command, and prior to the magnetic platter reaching the predefined maximum speed, access the storage location on the magnetic platter in response to the command; wherein each disk drive, when accessing the storage location on the magnetic platter in response to the command, is configured to: access the storage location on the magnetic platter of that disk drive while the magnetic platter rotates at an intermediate speed, the predefined maximum speed being at least five times greater than the intermediate speed.