Abstract: A method and apparatus for bandwidth balancing of data transfer operations between a computer and a storage subsystem are disclosed. The storage subsystem contains a number of storage devices such as magnetic disk drives. Data to be stored is supplied by the computer to the storage subsystem in the form of a transfer unit through a communication channel. The storage subsystem divides the transfer unit into a number of stripes of a pre-determined size. Each stripe is allocated to a separate disk drive whose disk surfaces are formatted into a number of track bands. Each track band is composed of several contiguous tracks associated with the same data transfer rate. Each stripe is then stored on its disk drive within a selected track band. Both data storage and retrieval from each disk drive occur at the data transfer rate associated with the accessed track band.