Definition

Noun: - (Computing): The time interval required for a disk drive's read/write head to move from its current position to a specific track on a magnetic disk or other storage medium where the desired data is located. It is a component of total data access latency.

Usage

• Seek time is a critical performance metric for storage devices like Hard Disk Drives (HDDs).
• It is typically measured in milliseconds (ms).
• Lower seek times result in faster data retrieval.

Examples

• The new solid-state drive has a negligible seek time compared to the traditional hard drive.
• Optimizing file placement can reduce average seek time and improve application performance.
• A key disadvantage of older hard disks was their high seek time.

Advanced Usage

• Average seek time: The mean time taken for a series of random seek operations, commonly used to specify drive performance.
• Track-to-track seek time: The time required to move the head between adjacent tracks, representing the fastest possible seek.

Variants and Related Words

• Access time (n): The total time to locate and retrieve data, including seek time, rotational latency, and data transfer time.
• Latency (n): In computing, a general term for any delay, often encompassing seek time.
• Rotational latency (n): The delay waiting for the desired disk sector to rotate under the read/write head, which adds to seek time to form total access time.

Synonyms

• Positioning time.
• Head positioning delay.

Notes

• Seek time is largely irrelevant for solid-state drives (SSDs) which have no moving parts, making their access times orders of magnitude faster than HDDs.
• In broader contexts, "seek" can mean to look for, but the compound term "seek time" is a specific technical term in data storage.

Noun

1. (computer science) the time it takes for a read/write head to move to a specific data track