Thermomechanical writing occurs as Joule-heated, cantilevered tips imprint nanometer-scale inden (bits) in a 50-nm-thick polymer (PMMA) film. Thermal data reading incorporates the same cantilevers operated in a mode to detect a temperature change when a tip follows the contour of a previously written bit. Binnig et.al [1] demonstrated single-cantilever writing and rading density at 400 Gbit/in2. A micromachined 32 × 32 cantilever array has been fabricated [2] and has demonstrated parallel read/write operation at 150 Gbi/in in2 [3]. Although much progress has been made to develop a thermomechanical data storage device [4], the fundamental process of thermomechanical storage processes by applying atomic force microscope (AFM)-based force detection during thermal operation. We examined the thermomechanics of polymer indentation with respect to time and temperature of interaction. This work impacts the operation of AFM cantilevens for combined thermal writing and reading and understnding of fundamental polymer mesoscopic transport.