Systems and methods are disclosed for employing a media read cache in a storage device. In certain embodiments, an, an apparatus may comprise a data storage drive including a volatile read cache, and a disc memory including a primary data storage region of the storage device configured for long-term storage of data via persistent logical block address to physical block address mapping, and a media read cache region configured to store a copy of data from the volatile read cache. The data storage drive may be configured to perform a read operation including: retrieve read data from the volatile read cache based on determining that the read data is available in the volatile read cache, and retrieve the read data from the media read cache based on determining that the read data is not available in the volatile read cache and is available in the media read cache.