How to find out the speed of your hard drive. How to check disk speed - testing the performance of SSD and HDD drives

From literacy and speed work hard disk depends on the performance of the computer. Over time, or immediately after purchase, the user may suspect that the HDD or SSD drive operate at low speed, which is why data is read from them “with brakes”. There is no tool in Windows that allows you to check the speed of your hard drive. At the same time third party solutions enough, and below we will consider the work of the two most popular programs For hard checks disk – CrystalDiskMark and HD Tune.

How to check hard drive speed with CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark is the simplest and most convenient application when you want to check the speed of your hard drive or solid state drive. The functionality of the program is small, but it does not require installation if you download it from the official developer website. You need to download the application, depending on the bit depth operating system used on a computer.

The advantage of the application is support for the Russian language, but some explanations of its operation are required. After launching the program, the user will see 5 green buttons, each of which performs a specific set of tests:

• All. By clicking this button, the application will carry out all the checks that it is capable of;
• Seq Q32T1. The utility will test sequential reading/writing to one thread with a depth of 32;
• 4K Q32T1. The utility will test random read/write performance in one thread with a depth of 32 blocks of 4K size;
• Seq. The utility will test sequential reading/writing to one thread with a depth of 1;
• 4K. The utility will test random reading/writing to a single thread with a depth of 1 blocks of 4K size.

For reference: Q32T1 – indicates the number of simultaneous threads and queue depth. If necessary, these indicators can be changed in the program settings.

In addition to choosing how to test your hard drive or SSD, you can set other options. At the top of the CrystalDiskMark application window, select the following options:

Important: Before testing your hard drive with CrystalDiskMark, it is recommended to close all applications that may affect the speed of the drive. Particular attention should be paid to downloads various files from the Internet, for example, to torrent trackers.

Based on the results of testing the hard drive with CrystalDiskMark, the user will see information in the Read and Write columns for selected tests (or for all at once).

The most interesting, from the point of view of daily computer use, are the second and fourth lines, since sequential reading and writing of information rarely occurs during the work process.

How to check your hard drive with HD Tune

The HD Tune app has significant differences from CrystalDiskMark in terms of functionality. If the program discussed above can only test the speed of reading and writing disks, then the HD Tune application can also tell you about the temperature of the drive, access time, processor load level, serial HDD number or SSD, and much more. The program is available in two versions - paid and free. For standard check enough free option, which can be downloaded from the developers' website. After downloading, the HD Tune utility will need to be installed on hard drive, unlike CrystalDiskMark.

The HD Tune program is capable of offering several types of tests, as well as providing various information about the disk in 4 tabs:

It is worth noting that before testing disks with HD Tune, it is also recommended to reduce the load on them as much as possible by closing applications, antiviruses, etc. that can load them.

To run a disk read/write speed test, run Command Prompt as an administrator. To do this, in Windows, click the "Start" button, in the list of programs, find the "Utility - Windows" section and in it the item " Command line". Click on it with the right mouse button, in the opened context menu select the sub-item "Advanced > Run as administrator" and confirm the action.

To run a predefined set of tests, enter the command:

Winsat disk

and press the "Enter" key. When this command completes, the results of the speed tests will be displayed in the console window.

We are interested in the following lines:

• Disk Random 16.0 Read – reading speed of random 256 blocks of 16 KB in size (i.e. 4 MB of test data);
• Disk Sequential 64.0 Read – reading speed of sequential 256 blocks of 64 KB in size (16 MB of test data);
• Disk Sequential 64.0 Write – writing speed of sequential 256 blocks of 64 KB in size (16 MB of test data).

Also next to the speed results you can see the performance index of your disks, the same one that is displayed in the properties window Windows systems 7. For Windows 7 it will range from 1.0 to 7.9, and for Windows 8 and 10 it will range from 1.0 to 9.9.

Optionally, for more detailed testing, you can add the following parameters to the "winsat disk" command:

• "-seq" or "-ran" – sequential or random read/write;
• "-read" or "-write" – reading or writing;
• "-n N" — number physical disk(N is a number). The default number is "0". Cannot be used in conjunction with the "-drive" option;
• "-drive X" – drive (X is a letter without a colon). By default, drive "C:" is tested. Cannot be used with the "-n" option;
• "-count N" – number of iterations of the write/read test, where N is a number from 1 to 50 (default 1);
• "-iocount N" – the number of test blocks that will be written/read during testing, where N is a number from 256 to 5000 (default 256);
• "-seqsize N" – block size in bytes for the sequential write/read speed test, where N is a number from 65536 to 1048576 (default 65536);
• "-ransize N" – block size in bytes for the random write/read speed test, where N is a number from 16384 to 1048576 (default 16384).

Other options for the "winsat disk" command can be found on the Microsoft TechNet website (in English).

Examples of use

The following command will run a predefined set of read/write speed tests on drive "D:":

Winsat disk-drive d

Read speed test of sequential blocks on drive "D:":

Winsat disk -seq -read -drive d

Random block writing speed test on disk "D:":

Winsat disk -ran -write -drive d

Two iterations of the read speed test of 512 random blocks of 1 MB in size (1048576 bytes) on disk “D:” (i.e., in total, 2x512x1048576=1073741824 bytes=1 GB will be read):

Winsat disk -ran -read -drive d -count 2 -iocount 512 -ransize 1048576

Removable media test

You can also check the speed of such removable media such as flash drives, memory cards, etc. We do not recommend running a preset set of tests with the “winsat disk -drive X” command, since flash drives and memory cards work slower than the computer’s hard drive and the preset set of tests can take a very long time to run. It will be more efficient to use the following commands:

Winsat disk -seq -read -drive X winsat disk -seq -write -drive X winsat disk -ran -read -drive X winsat disk -ran -write -drive X

where X is the letter of the removable drive.

You can also refine your data size and other testing parameters using the options listed above.

Often, users experience that their computer starts to work slowly. Files take a long time to copy and the system boots slowly. It turns out that all these indicators are affected by disk speed. To find out the characteristics of the hard drive, it is recommended to use specialized software.

It is important to note that the indicators will be different for HDD and SSD drives. This is due to the characteristics of iron. Solid State Drives work much faster. On regular hard drive loading the OS takes about 40 seconds. As for the SSD, on such a disk the system will boot in 7 seconds.

Selecting a program for testing

Actually check speed hard disk is possible a large number programs that differ in functionality and operating principle. Despite the abundance of software, it is recommended to pay attention to the following applications:

It doesn't matter which program is chosen for testing. It is important to analyze each product and then read the instructions before installation and use.

Crystal Disk Mark is a utility that is designed to check the speed of your hard drive. It should be noted that the utility can also scan removable media.

The test procedure allows you to find out the speed at which the hard drive operates. Using the data obtained, you can determine the media suitable for installing the OS. CrystalDiskMark can test a disk in 4 ways. These include:

• Seq – Sequential reading (writing) check. The block size is 1 MB;
• 512K – Random read detection. A block is 512 KB;
• 4K – Random write (read) analysis. The queue depth is 1 and the block is 4 kb
• 4K QD32 – speed mode determination for AHCL and NCQ.

If desired, you can use the “All” button. After this it will start hard testing disk. The program will launch everything one by one existing regimes. To test the disk you need to:

1. Launch CrystalDiskMark;
2. Set the number of read and write cycles. The optimal value is “5”;
3. Select hard drive;
4. Setting the file size for analysis. The best choice is 1 GiB;
5. Press the button to start the test.

The verification takes only a few minutes. It is recommended to save the results to a file to make it easier to compare the performance of several hard ones.

A utility that allows you to find out the read and write speed of a disk connected to a computer. The program can work not only with HDD, but also with SSD. In addition to testing, the application can determine the performance of the hard drive. It should be noted that there are 2 versions of the program: paid and free. The differences lie in the “stripped-down” nature of the free product.

The main features of the utility include:

• Low-level performance testing;
• Obtaining detailed information about the disk;
• Checking the health status of the hard drive;
• Disk error monitoring;
• Definition temperature regime devices;
• Additional tests.

The "Pro" version has much more features. It is important to note that you can work for free full version for 15 days.

After launching the application, you will see 4 tabs:

1. Benchmark.
2. Info.
3. Health.
4. Error Scan.

The first tab is designed to check the speed of the hard drive. After analysis, the results will appear in the right window of the program, displayed in the following categories:

• CPU load indicator;
• Peak operating speed;
• Time interval for the system to access files;
• Average speed indicators;
• Lowest speed;
• Maximum speed value.

The hard drive speed test is not the only feature of the program. In the “Info” tab, the utility will display detailed information about the disk. The list will include information such as the hard drive model, serial number, volume, etc.

The “Health” tab displays the health status of the hard drive. If the “Ok” indicator is set everywhere, you don’t have to worry about the device. This means that everything is functioning correctly.

The last tab allows you to find hard drive errors. The search process may take some time. Green squares indicate that everything is fine. Red ones indicate damage.

The program is designed to control hard state disk. If the readings fall below the acceptable level, the device will stop reading data. Ashampoo tracks the level of performance indicators. The program supports:

• USB drives.

With a clear interface, you can monitor performance, temperature, and more. It should be noted that the utility supports self-testing of “health”.

The main features of the program include:

• 24/7 control hard drives;
• Possibility of media self-test;
• Obtaining data about logical drives;
• Defragmentation;
• Monitoring and recovery of deleted data;
• Scanning and removing duplicates;
• Data transfer rate analysis;
• Examination hard temperature disk.

The program for measuring speed and other hard drive indicators has an intuitive interface. For ease of management, sections necessary for the following tasks have been created:

• Control;
• Defragmentation;
• Testing;
• Removing traces of the Internet;
• Disk cleanup.

In the first tab “Control” you can see detailed information about hard drives, including performance and temperature. If necessary, you can create a report.

The “Defragmentation” section allows you to defragment any disk connected to your computer. For convenience, the program visualizes the layout of data in various sectors of the hard drive. Before starting defragmentation, it is recommended to perform an analysis.

The Testing tab allows you to check the status of your hard drive. After going to the section, you need to select the hard one you are interested in. Then click on the “Start” button. It is important to note that it is not recommended to perform any manipulations with the computer while testing the disk.

When testing is completed, the screen will display detailed information. Since it is not difficult to find out the speed, it is recommended to carefully study other features of the utility. If you have any questions, please consult the manual for help.

Conclusion

Do not forget that the performance of the computer will directly depend on the condition of the hard drive. Therefore, it is recommended to run a program to test the hard drive at least once a week. As for choosing an application, it is best to pay attention to the CrystalDiskMark program, since it does not contain anything superfluous. At the same time, Crystal copes with her task perfectly.

Video review of programs for checking hard

Instructions

Check the instructions to find out the model of the storage device installed on your computer.

Go online. Type “HDD forum” in the search. Research information on forums where users discuss hard drive specifications and what programs they use to determine and adjust spindle speed. Here are some addresses of major sites where you can get help and good advice: ClubControl (http://www.clubcontrol.ru/forum/), HDD forum (http://hdd.kulichki.com/forum/), Monitor (http://monitor.net.ru/forum/) and etc. On the Internet you can find large number programs, both paid and free. However, not all of them work equally well with various models hard drives.

Download and install the necessary software. Now turn off the computer and let it rest for 10-15 minutes. To determine the actual rotation speed of the disk, it is necessary to carry out measurements in a system that has not yet had time to obtain heavy load and is in perfect condition.

Launch the program. Inspect the list of physical disks, which are presented in a list or diagram. Select the disk about which you want to find out information at this time.

Run a speed test called Benchmark. Usually, using this test, it is possible to obtain information that gives a completely objective picture of the condition of the disk as a whole. Click the Start button and wait for the testing procedure to complete.

Analyze the data collected by the program. Please note a few critical points. First, look at the Transfer Rate Minimum. This indicator determines minimum speed transfer rate, while Transfer Rate Maximum indicates the maximum. Then move on to the average rate, called Transfer Rate Average. Write down the numbers or save them in any other way.

Check Access Time - an indicator that describes the average access time for files, measured in milliseconds. Together with Burst Rate (peak HDD rotation speed), Access Time is very important characteristic, which needs to be taken into account. Also record CPU load data during rotation of hard disk.

Compare all the data collected by the program with those provided by the HDD manufacturer in the computer’s operating instructions. Please note that the indicator numbers may differ significantly, but this does not always indicate a HDD failure. The test results are greatly influenced by the operating conditions.

Sources:

• how to find out disk speed

Many programs, both paid and free, have been developed for testing hard drives. HDD Scan is a free program for Windows with which you can view S.M.A.R.T indicators, check the hard drive for bad sectors, and also see the speed characteristics of the hard drive in a graphical representation.

You will need

• - computer;
• - Internet;
• - HDD Scan program.

Instructions

Download HDD program Scan. It doesn't need to be installed. You can find the installer on the official website of the developer hddscan.com. Save the downloaded program to the Programs folder for future use and launch the application by double-clicking on the start file.

In the main program window, in the Source Disk section, check whether the hard drive is selected correctly. You can see the S.M.A.R.T data by clicking on the button of the same name just below. You can easily find the decoding of these attributes on the Internet.

In the Process area, click the Start button to begin checking the disk. The Start LBA parameter is the first sector of the check, and the End LBA is the last sector. During the verification process, the Map tab area will be filled with colored squares indicating sectors. As soon as all the space is filled with such squares, the system will automatically notify you that the computer has fully checked the speed of the hard drive.

Go to the Map tab to view a graph of your hard drive speed. It may differ depending on the sector area that is in at the moment being tested. The program also offers to adjust the noise of the hard drive, display sector check data in the form of a report, and some other features. HDD Scan is quite easy to use and is worth having in your arsenal utilities computer maintenance.

In general, we can say that checking the speed of a hard drive on a personal computer is not difficult, since it is enough to download the appropriate software and perform a few simple operations. However, be careful because incorrect operation with such programs can break the entire system.

Video on the topic

Tip 3: How to determine Internet speed in 2017

There are several questions that new PC users have. The first question is how and from whom to connect the Internet, and the second is what type of Internet to choose in order to get a decent one. There are ways to determine what your Internet connection speed is. This allows you to find out what time of day the speed is highest, as well as how long it will take to download your favorite series.

You will need

• Special sites for measuring Internet speed online.

Instructions

First of existing methods- this is to use special sites that determine the speed of an on-line connection. In order to do a test, you just need to type the address of one of these sites and it will show you all the necessary data in the form of a table “test results for”.
In this case, the data will be real, the kind that your Internet actually provides. After all, it is no longer a secret for many that the download speed may also depend on the channel width of the resource from which you are downloading.

In order to obtain more reliable verification data, you need all programs that can affect the verification result itself. These are programs such as flashget, emule, reget and bittorrent. The same goes for radio and internet. It is advisable to repeat the test several times for a more accurate result. There is nothing complicated, but you will find out real data about your Internet connection.

Before starting the verification procedure, you need to indicate the speed declared by the provider - this is necessary in order to compare real speed and promised. It takes very little time to check - only 30 seconds. This is quite enough to determine the speed. The site tells you how many meters it passed in those 30 seconds and how it determined the speed.
How alternative way can be used special programs to check Internet speed - but this is already a thing of the past, it is much easier to check online sites. The data will be more accurate, and you will know how long it will take you to watch a movie, favorite movie or picture.

Video on the topic

Useful advice

Services for determining Internet speed: http://2ip.ru
http://spchat.ru

When loading specific file from the Internet, it is interesting to learn about the speed, as well as the time that you will have to wait until the entire operation is completed. This can be done using special software.

Instructions

There is a large list of various software on the Internet that allows you to see in real time speed transfers data. One of the popular utilities is Download Master. This program spreads completely . You can find it on the Internet or install it from the disk on which the operating system distribution kit is located with installation of programs in WPI mode.

Install this software on your hard drive personal computer. For convenience, install to the system local disk so that the program and all downloads are on one local disk. In case of emergency, you can do backup copy and quickly restore information without any loss. A shortcut will appear on the desktop with which you can open the main program window.

An icon will also appear in the tray, which, when new download will display the current process. Open the program by double-clicking the left mouse button on the shortcut. In your browser, locate the file you need to download. Right-click on the link and select “Copy link address” in the context menu. The download is automatically integrated into the program window. You only need to click the "Download" button.

This software allows up to 10 downloads at a time, but the list of pending files can be endless. Next to each downloaded file will be displayed speed downloads, as well as the time it will take to complete. At the top of the program there is a small graph that displays the maximum and minimum speed download all files. You can leave a description for the file so that you don’t get confused later if there are a large volume of files.

Video on the topic

The higher quality the communication channel, the more comfortable the work on the Internet. Pages open very quickly, even large files are downloaded in a short period of time. However, even with good channel the user sometimes has a desire to find out the real speed transfers data.

Instructions

Use special network services to evaluate your channel. They work on the following principle: a small file is transferred to your computer, and the time spent receiving it is measured. Based on this information, it is calculated speed receiving data. For example, follow this link: http://ip-whois.net/test-speed-internet/ Select any server on the map and click on it with the mouse. In the window that appears, click the line “Start Internet”. Testing takes less than a minute, and upon completion you will see the test results.

You should know that speed Internet traffic is highly dependent on the time of day - it is worst when communication lines are most congested and increases when most users are offline - for example, at night. Therefore, perform this test several times per different times days, this will help you find out how the speed Internet during the day.

You can evaluate the real speed your internet when downloading large files- for example, files from, DVD images, etc. In the download manager it is usually indicated speed transfers data in per second. Please note that providers indicate speed Internet in kilobits.

Video on the topic

A slow-running computer can irritate even a very calm person. It is not necessary to replace a slow machine with a new one - just find out which component is reducing its performance and carry out the upgrade.

Instructions

There are two reasons for poor performance computer: insufficient computing power processor and too little random access memory (RAM). The second of these reasons reduces speed work indirectly: when a resource-intensive application that is not running is running, it begins to use the hard drive for temporary data storage. This process is called swapping. Exchange data with hard drive is much slower than with RAM. To determine what exactly needs to be upgraded, pay attention to the hard drive activity indicator. If the “braking” of the machine is accompanied by active access to the drive, it is necessary to increase the amount of RAM, and if not, replace the processor.

A criterion for assessing the performance of any media digital information, is the speed of writing and reading data. This indicator can directly affect the performance of the computer where this hard drive, SSD or USB drive is installed.

If you want to test the read and write speed of your hard drive, which your drive is capable of running, then you need to download the free CrystalDiskMark program for Windows. In addition to calculating the above parameters, the capabilities of this program can be used to check the characteristics that the manufacturer indicates on their devices.

Before running the hard disk drive (HDD) read and write speed test, SSD drives, you should choose its type. There are four of them in the program.

1. CrystalDiskMark will write sequential blocks of 1024 kilobytes in size
2. The writing procedure will be random, and the block size will be 512 kilobytes.
3. The third type of test will take place when writing stacks, the size of which will be equal to 4 kilobytes.
4. Random write test with a block size of 4 kilobytes and a queue depth of 32 (for AHCI and NCQ).

In addition, when running the test mode you have chosen, you need to determine the type of data that will be recorded during the testing process. With the default selection, CrystalDiskMark will conduct random entries ones and zeros.

With this type of testing, the response time of the hard drive may be slightly overestimated. For drives of type SSD is better select the record type All 0x00, then the recorded data will be represented as zeros. The third type, All 0xFF, will produce random records that will consist entirely of ones.

Once you have determined all the test parameters, you can select the number of write cycles that CrystalDiskMark will perform during testing (from one to nine). The final parameter of the HDD read and write test will be to determine the size of the data written in its process (from 50 megabytes).

After selecting all the above options, you will need to select the media to be scanned from the list. After this, all testing can be started by clicking on the “Start” button.” If you want to carry out all types of diagnostics automatically, the “All” button activates this option.

It is important to note that before starting the scan you should close all active programs. Their work can negatively affect the results. We recommend download CrystalDiskMark for Windows, as the most practical program for determining the read and write speed of hard and SSD drives.