A media player and a method for operating a media player are disclosed. A media program is able to substantially immediately begin playing after a media play selection has been made. Through intelligent operation, the media program is able to start playing even before the media program has been substantially or completely loaded from disk storage into semiconductor memory (i.e., cache memory). Additionally, the media program can be loaded into semiconductor memory through use of a background process without disturbing the playing of the media program. Further, if desired, the disk storage is able to be aggressively "powered off" when not being accessed, thereby enhancing battery life when being battery-powered.