How to find out the disk reading speed. How to determine hard drive speed


A more or less advanced computer user should know that the speed of the operating system depends on the speed of the hard drive. PC performance is largely determined by the performance level of the HDD.

How to Check Hard Drive Speed ​​with CrystalDiskMark

A popular and very convenient program designed for comparative analysis (testing) of the performance of computer hard drives. Allows you to measure the speed of reading and writing data. According to http://www.softportal.com from 01/14/2018: the last update was 11/05/2017.

How to download CrystalDiskMark?

http://www.softportal.com/get-6473-crystaldiskmark.html

And on this site you can choose where you will download from the developer’s website or directly from the soft portal.

The exe file will download and you must double-click on it with the left mouse button.

Allow the program to run with administrative rights. It will launch and the standard installation process will begin. In my case, and maybe in yours too, the installation was done in Japanese.

After I clicked “Finish” it started automatically.

CrystalDiskMark Settings

The main CrystalDiskMark parameters are located in the main window:

So, in order:

  1. Number of checks. By default there will be 5 checks. In fact, three are enough, and the maximum can be set to 9. As a result, you will see the average value of all checks.
  2. file size. This is the volume of the test file, by writing/reading which the results of the first test will be calculated. Leave the default value.
  3. Disc selection. Select the drive whose speed test you want to run. In my case, this is the C:/ drive and in yours, perhaps, too.

Remember! To calculate the real speed of a disk, in particular an SSD, it is required that the drive has at least 15-20% of its capacity free. When the disk size For example, if you have a 500 GB disk, then there should be at least 75-100 GB of free space. It would be right to close all programs that load the disk, the same torrent, Photoshop and others.

There are other settings, which we will discuss below. But, I’ll say right away, they don’t play a special role.

The next step is to click on the button ALL to run all tests.

Tests started

After the process is completed, the program will display the results.

1 line – SeqQ32T1– writing and reading a file of 1 GB in size, with a depth of 32 using 1 thread, is checked.

2nd line – 4 KiBQ8T8– blocks of 4 KB in size are written in random order with a depth of 8, using 8 threads.

3 line – 4 KiBQ32T1– blocks of 4 KB in size are written in random order with a depth of 32, using 8 threads.

4 line – 4 KiB Q1T1– blocks of 4 KB in size are written in random order with a depth of 1 using 1 thread.

The left column shows the speed reading, right column – record. In the title of each column you can see the unit of measurement - Megabytes per seconds u.

Here are the results for a typical 500GB hard drive:

What is important to pay attention to? On the third and fourth lines (tests 4 KiBQ32T1 And 4 KiB Q1T1). A significant number of files involved in the operation of the system range in size from 4 to 8 KB. That is why these parameters play a key role in the speed of the system.

Line with test parameters SeqQ32T1 shows the speed of copying large, integral files. For example, movies or disk images. This indicator does not particularly affect the speed of the system, if we evaluate the speed as a whole.

As you already understand, the operating system runs much faster if you use an SSD drive. Try to carry out this test with a hdd drive, and then with an ssd drive, and you will find out for yourself.

The speed of reading/writing random data from 4 KB to 8 KB will increase tenfold. Surely, you use a hdd with Windows OS and even after reinstalling Windows, performance drops over time. With sdd everything is different.

No matter what speed the manufacturer indicates in the characteristics of their SSDs, the user always wants to check everything in practice. But it is impossible to find out how close the drive speed is to the declared one without the help of third-party programs. The most that can be done is to compare how quickly files are copied on a solid-state drive with similar results from a magnetic drive. In order to find out the real speed, you need to use a special utility.

SSD speed test

As a solution, we will choose a simple program called . It has a Russian interface and is very easy to use. So let's get started.

Immediately after launch, the main window will open in front of us, which contains all the necessary settings and information.

Before starting the test, we will set a couple of parameters: the number of checks and the file size. The accuracy of the measurements will depend on the first parameter. By and large, the five checks that are installed by default are quite enough to obtain correct measurements. But if you want to get more accurate information, you can set the maximum value.

The second parameter is the size of the file that will be read and written during tests. The value of this parameter will also affect both the measurement accuracy and the test execution time. However, in order not to reduce the service life of the SSD, you can set the value of this parameter to 100 Megabytes.

After setting all the parameters, we proceed to selecting a disk. Everything is simple here, open the list and select our solid-state drive.

Now you can proceed directly to testing. CrystalDiskMark offers five tests:

  • Seq Q32T1– testing sequential writing/reading of a file with a depth of 32 per thread;
  • 4K Q32T1– testing random writing/reading of blocks of size 4 Kilobytes with a depth of 32 per thread;
  • Seq– testing sequential write/read with depth 1;
  • 4K– testing random write/read with depth 1.

Each of the tests can be run separately; to do this, just click on the green button of the desired test and wait for the result.

You can also do a full test by clicking on the All button.

In order to get more accurate results, it is necessary to close all (if possible) active programs (especially torrents), and it is also desirable that the disk is no more than half full.

Since in everyday use of a personal computer the random method of reading/writing data is most often used (80%), we will be more interested in the results of the second (4K Q32t1) and fourth (4K) tests.

Now let's analyze the results of our test. An ADATA SP900 disk with a capacity of 128 GB was used as an “experimental” disk. As a result, we got the following:

  • With the sequential method, the drive reads data at a speed 210-219 Mbit/s;
  • recording with the same method is slower - only 118 Mbit/s;
  • reading with a random method with a depth of 1 occurs at speed 20 Mbit/s;
  • recording using a similar method - 50 Mbit/s;
  • read and write with depth 32 - 118 Mbit/s and 99 Mbit/s, respectively.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that reading/writing is performed at high speeds only with files whose volume is equal to the buffer size. Those with larger buffers will be read and copied more slowly.

So, with the help of a small program we can easily estimate the speed of the SSD and compare it with what the manufacturers indicate. By the way, this speed is usually overestimated, and using CrystalDiskMark you can find out exactly how much.

Among ordinary users who do not classify themselves as enthusiastic assemblers or who are simply interested in PC equipment, there is an opinion that the speed of a computer primarily depends on the frequency of the processor and the amount of RAM. This is partly true, but many often underestimate another very important component of a modern computer - the disk for user data and the operating system. The speed of your computer as a whole greatly depends on how fast your PC's file storage system works. That is why users who want to upgrade their computer's performance are first advised to buy an SSD, since it works much faster than conventional hard drives.

There are many reasons to check disk speed. From banal curiosity to diagnosing performance degradation or comparing the speeds declared by the manufacturer with the real ones. Checking disk speed in Windows 10 will also help you figure out whether you should replace your disk with a different one to improve performance.

Unfortunately, Windows 10 does not have built-in mechanisms for measuring disk speed, and therefore we will use third-party applications to perform this task.

CrystalDisk Mark - checking hard drive speed

One of the most popular utilities for checking disk speed in Windows 10. Simple, free, convenient, and also Russified. In addition, it can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store, which will further simplify the task for the user.

For reference: The version from the store is no different from the version on the official website. It's all about ease of installation.

Drive speed test in AS SSD Benchmark


It is quite possible that you will see figures lower than those declared by the manufacturer of your drive (primarily this applies to SSDs). In this case, we recommend checking the interface connecting the SSD to the computer. To “unleash the potential” of a regular 2.5” drive, use a SATA3 connection. It provides speeds of up to 600 Mb/sec. SATA3 drives can be connected to SATA and SATA2 interfaces, but in this case their maximum speed will not be higher than 150 and 300 MB/sec. The highest values ​​will be shown by drives in a RAID configuration or with a PCIe interface. If, when checking your hard drive, you notice very low speed indicators, the disk may have a number of “bad sectors”. In this case, we recommend you. This will help you decide whether your PC's storage system is worth upgrading or whether your existing drives may still have some time left in them.

You can check the interface type on the computer motherboard or in third-party software. The developer of CrystalDisk Mark has created a utility that you will need to check your SATA type. It will not only show the connected interface, but also other important information, such as the health status of the disk, its temperature, mileage, and so on.


There are a large number of other applications on the Internet for testing the speed of your drives. In this article, we focused on only two, as we consider their capabilities sufficient for the average user. Paired with CrystalDisk Info, they provide the consumer with all the necessary tools to diagnose the speed and health of the drive.

In this article we will look at the work of utilities that are used to test the speed of a hard drive. With their help, you can compare results from the same data stores and get an accurate picture of the performance of your hard drive. We do not consider details regarding the comparison of SSD-solid-state drives that claim to replace the dominant HDD “pancakes” on the market - only tests. So I’m building the article into the following parts:

  • Performance: does everything depend only on the disk?
  • Free speed testing programs
  • – testing and comparing

Introductory

So, one of the most important devices inside a computer is the hard drive. Of course, Windows is installed there. And as a result, we can get a situation where the performance of other components against the backdrop of slow storage the data just goes out. Dozens gigabytes of RAM and more than one pair Latest generation CPU cores “under the hood”? - But slow disk equates your build to the average, despite a lot of money spent. This is why, once a user has switched to an SSD, it is unlikely that he will return to the HDD, even if he neglects the costs. But how obviously beneficial is this? In general, when considering a future purchase regarding a hard drive, the user has this picture before his eyes:

Let's put the problems right away: disk performance in Windows is not determined SOLELY by the rotation speed of the HDD pancakes or the memory capacity of SSD chips. The operation of the storage before the system starts and during the system session includes factors such as:

  • characteristics
  • connection type (cable or without)
  • cable type (we'll talk more later)
  • controller drivers and others.

So how do you know if your drive's performance is okay or if some additional tweaks are needed? It's time to test the hard drive, and I will present several programs that work under the latest versions of Windows with different types of storage. Working Condition only one thing: during the test, reduce user access to Windows to a minimum. In addition, many programs have the same characteristics and testing conditions, which you better get to know right away:

  • Sequential – Sequencel- (Also seq or linear) – the speed at which the disk can read and write a block of data in the form of large files. Suitable for disks with large amounts of stored information or game partitions where file sizes on average are no less than megabyte. Sequence tests will show the maximum write/read speed that the disk can achieve when working EXACTLY with good quality movies and games.
  • 4K – For-kay– hard drive speed test, as opposed to the previous one. Its task is to determine the speed of access to small files. And let me remind you, this is extremely important for the files of the OS itself. High results in 4K tests indicate high data transfer rates between the drive and Windows. This means that the system boots and runs faster from such a disk, so when choosing storage to speed up work with the OS itself, good 4K testing results are a priority.

Hard drive speed test: free programs

HD Touch

The latest version known to me is in the form (only in 32-bit version), and the utility is no longer supported. Worked perfectly in Windows XP, but in the latest versions of Windows it refuses to check disks.

However, you can risk running the program in Compatibility Mode(I INSTALL such programs in this mode):

You can also run tests on Windows 10:

sata disk in a laptop - from connector to controller

IDE drive via cable

SATA drive via cable

The program offers 2 types of testing: recording short (8 MB) and long (32 MB) blocks. As you can see, the overall speed of data exchange with the disk based on the results of several tests is highlighted in red. A block with information on the average speed of reading data from the disk will be available on the right ( Average read), CPU load for working with the disk ( CPU Utilization). Based on the results of the work, the once useful button is available Graph Data for comparison with the “ideal” technical characteristics of hard drives. Unfortunately, it has long lost its relevance - the utility has been abandoned since 2004.

CrystalDiskMark

And this is one of the most popular hard drive speed tests. A rudimentary interface, large numbers and letters - how can you not use it. It works with a wide range of storage devices: it supports memory cards, flash drives, and all types of hard drives. CrystalDiskMark It’s easy to use: in the header we sequentially select the number of passes (I have 5 – the more, the more accurate the result), the tested disk volume (I allocated for the test 4 GB space) and the disk itself, if there are several of them:

Click All(or any other from the column) and wait for the results:

For SSD drives (the test was not included here), there is an additional option - writing data scattered or using 0 And 1 . This kind of test is worth trying “against” a disk with a compression function on controllers Sandforce.

HD Tune

One of the most popular hard drive diagnostic and testing tools. However, like some of its analogues, the free version has not been updated by the creators for a long time. So, compared to modern hybrids and some SSDs, it lags a little in the speed testing results. You can download a free version in my archive. Based on the results of the work, you can see the minimum, average and maximum disk read speeds, the average storage access speed and the Breakthrough Indicator Burst Rate– (best rate ) – maximum speed (megabit/sec) that the disk can provide when exchanging data with the OS. The size of the blocks used can be changed from 512 bytes to 8 MB, changing the accuracy/speed of the test:

sata disk test results

ATTO Disk Benchmark

Click on the button Run, the results will open in a browser window (it’s better not to touch the keyboard and mouse):

The results for me are disappointing in some respects:

In the same window, you can go down a little lower and check the game settings for popular games and find out how well your build copes with them. As it turned out, it was better for me not to go there at all. Moreover, this is another story beyond the scope of this article.

Hi all! I think it’s no secret to anyone that one of the most important components inside your computer or laptop is the drive that contains the operating system. A completely logical consequence is the question of how to perform a hard drive (or SSD, if the computer is newer) speed test.

If your operating system is installed on a slow hard drive, then it doesn’t matter how powerful your central processor or RAM is - Windows itself and installed programs will start very reluctantly and you won’t be able to enjoy full multitasking.

In the age of the Internet, there are quite a lot of publications that will tell you about almost any drive model on sale. In addition, there are a huge number of programs for checking the speed of a hard drive, the result of which will be an understanding of what your drive is capable of.

There are many paid utilities, like PCMark or PassMark, that can test the entire system and can often be found in tests from well-known publications. We're going the other way and I'm going to tell you about four free ways to test the speed of your hard drive or SSD.

The real performance of an HDD or SSD in a Windows environment (and not only) is determined not only by the rotation speed of the magnetic disk or the memory of the drive chips, but also by many other important factors. The drive controller, the SATA version on the motherboard, the drivers of the controller itself, the operating mode (ACHI or IDE) - all this affects the performance of the disk subsystem (even the CPU or RAM can affect the performance)

Method 1: CrystalDiskMark is our main tool

Probably the most popular tool for testing hard drive speed is CrystalDiskMark. Almost no drive testing is complete without this utility - this situation will help you compare your results and draw the right conclusions. A big plus is the program’s ability to test not only HDD/SSD, but also flash drives and other storage media.

The application has both a distribution and a portable version that does not require installation. You can download it as usual on the official website (I, as always, recommend portable).

CrystalDiskMark is incredibly easy to use. We launch the utility, select the size of the test block (in the picture below we chose 1 GB), the number of test repetitions (I chose 5 - the more repetitions, the more accurate the result) and the drive itself. We press the “all” button and wait until the program runs all the tests (by the way, you can run a separate test for each mode).

In the screenshot on the left is the SSD speed test, and on the right is the HDD. Just so you know how big the difference is between them and what kind of performance gain you will get by replacing just one component in the system

Method 2. CrystalDiskInfo - detailed information about the HDD/SSD drive

At the very beginning of the note, I already wrote that the speed test of a hard drive or SSD will not be entirely correct if we do not find out the factors affecting the performance of the disk subsystem. The CrystalDiskInfo utility will tell you a lot of interesting things about your drive, but we are interested in just one nuance - download the application from the official website and run it.

Pay attention to the line “Transfer mode”, in the picture below I have it (SATA/600 | SATA/600). These parameters must match, i.e. By connecting the SSD drive to the SATA/300 port (this is the SATA II standard), we will get a maximum exchange speed with the disk of 300 MB, and if we look at the performance test in the first method, we see that the maximum read speed was far beyond 300...

By connecting such a high-speed drive to a SATA or SATA II port, its performance will simply be limited by the performance of the controller (with classic HDDs it is not so critical, since even SATA capabilities are abundant)

In general, CrystalDiskInfo can tell you about the temperature, operating time of the drive and many other useful indicators. For owners of classic HDDs, the Reallocate Sector item will be useful - thanks to it you can predict the failure of the device

Method 3. AS SSD Benchmark - a healthy competitor to CrystalDisk from the Germans

The Germans know how to make not only films for adults, but also excellent utilities for testing the speed of a hard drive or SSD. In this case, I want to introduce you to the AS SSD Benchmark application, the functionality of which is very similar to CrystalDiskMark, but unlike it, it also shows data access time (and in general there are still minor differences).

You can download it from the official website (it’s in German, the download link is at the end of the page), the application itself is in English (many bloggers have a version exclusively in German)

The utility is portable and does not require installation, just run the application, select the required tests and press START, just like in the first method. On the left is my home SSD, on the right is the classic HDD.

Please note that in the TOOLS menu there are a couple of interesting tests that can predict the performance of the drive when copying ISO files, programs or various toys - CrystalDiskMark does not have such functionality

Method 4. HD Tune is a good tool with a visual graph

HD Tune is most likely the most famous application for testing hard drive speed, but it is in last place in today's ranking for a reason. The fact is that the free version of HD Tune has not been updated since February 2008... however, everything still works in 2k17 on the latest Windows 10. As always, you can download it from the official website (unfortunately there is no portable version)

After passing the test, we will have access to a visual reading graph (along with the maximum and minimum values, as well as the speed of data access). In general, the information is useful, but there is no way to test the disk writing speed, which is a little disappointing...

Due to its antiquities the application may not correctly detect modern drives, but this does not affect the test results in any way

Conclusion about hard drive speed testing programs

It's time to draw conclusions. We performed a hard drive or SSD speed test using four different programs (or rather, there are only three testing applications, and one more utility to make sure that the tests will be objective).

In reality, programs that allow you to check the speed of a hard drive are many times faster, but I decided to introduce you to the leaders of this niche... but if you have anything to add, I’m waiting for you in the comments.


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