Method and Apparatus for Processing Access Requests for a Disk Drive

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for managing access requests for access to a disk drive. A placement of a set of disk heads tracked and an expected time to process already queued access requests by the disk drive are tracked. In response to receiving the request to access the disk drive at a device driver, a determination is made as to whether the request can be completed within a specified amount of time associated with the request without sending the access request to the disk drive. The request is placed, by the device driver, in a queue for execution if a determination is made that the access request can be completed within the specified amount of time.