A method is provided for I/O data transfer between memory and disk. In one embodiment, an application program generates N data transfer requests. Thereafter, a data transfer list is created that comprises N entries each comprising a file sector descriptor and a buffer address. The application program is suspended in favor of initiating the operating system. Thereafter, N data transfers are performed, each one of which comprises transferring data between a file sector and a buffer identified by the file sector descriptor and a buffer address, respectively, contained in one of the entries of the data transfer list. On completion of N data transfers, the operating system is suspended and the application program is reinitiated.