1. A method for determining a total seek time required to access a physical disk storage device that stores data in a plurality of data blocks, said method comprising the steps of: A) collecting the number of disk accesses to each data block during a sample interval, B) generating a first sum of the accesses to all the data blocks, C) generating a second sum that is the sum of all the first sums, D) generating a third sum that is a sum of the squares of all the first sums, and E) combining the first, second and third sums to obtain the total interval required for all the disk accesses to all the data blocks in the physical disk storage device.