Shortest seek first (or shortest seek time first) is a secondary storage scheduling algorithm to determine the motion of the disk read-and-write head in servicing read and write requests.
This is an alternative to the first-come first-served (FCFS) algorithm.
The shortest seek first algorithm determines which request is closest to the current position of the head, and then services that request next.
The shortest seek first algorithm has the benefit of simplicity, in that overall arm movement is reduced, resulting in a lower average response time.
[1] The elevator algorithm is one alternative for reducing arm movement and response time, and ensuring consistent servicing of requests.