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by bcrl 1647 days ago
Drives don't read from multiple platters in parallel, so it's actually num_tracks * num_platters * 2 / rpm to read in the best case. Real world is more than that since it takes time for the drive firmware to shift between different platters and tracks.

*edit: not entirely true: the Seagate MACH.2 drive series that has 2 separate head assemblies per drive. They're pretty expensive and hard to get ahold of.