Kingston ssd drive status. How can you find out the status of your hard drive (HDD) or SSD?

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 CPU or RAM is - Windows itself and installed programs will be launched 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 are taking a different path and I will tell you about four free ways test speed hard disk or solid state drive.

Real HDD performance or SSD in Windows environment(and not only) is determined not only by the rotation speed magnetic disk or memory of drive chips, but also 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 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 distribution and portable version, which 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 a test SSD speeds, 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 maximum speed reading was well over 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 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 has English language(many bloggers have a version exclusively in German)

The utility is portable and does not require installation, just run the application, check necessary tests and press START, everything is the same as 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... but it still works in 2k17 on latest Windows 10. As always, you can download 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 HDD or SSD speed test using four different programs(or rather, there are only three applications for testing, 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.

Hello admin! I decided the other day to buy solid state drive! I came to a computer store and told the seller:

Sell ​​me the fastest SSD!

and they answered me:

Here you are, Kingston HyperX 3K (120 GB, SATA-III) speed 555 MB/s, excellent SSD, it doesn't get faster.

Prove it!

Apparently they wanted to sell me this SSD so much that they installed it on the computer and ran the test in the CrystalDiskMark program, then showed the test result, here is the screenshot:

Sequential read speed of 541 MB/s and write speed of 493 MB/s, I even took a photo of it with my phone.

In short, I bought this SSD, came home, connected it to my computer, then downloaded and launched the “CrystalDiskMark” program and ran the same test, but the result was worse!

Sequential read speed of 489 MB/s and write speed of 127 MB/s. Why?

In the store, the test was carried out on a computer with an Intel® Core™ i5 processor and 4GB of memory, my computer is more powerful and is built on the basis Intel processor® Core™ i7 and has 8GB of memory.

Explain to the admin what the catch is, otherwise I won’t sleep, after all, this SSD costs 3 and a half rubles.

Hi all! Yes, this can happen, friends, you just need to know how to use the CrystalDiskMark program. Now I will show you everything.

• Note: You may be interested in our other articles on SSDs

We will conduct the SSD test in the CrystalDiskMark 3 0 3 program

The program can be downloaded from the official website http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

CrystalDiskMark tests our SSD this way:.

All: All 4 tests are performed (Seq, 512K, 4K, 4K QD32);

Seq: Sequential write/read test (block size= 1024Kb);

512K: Random write/read test (block size = 512Kb);

4K: Random write/read test (block size = 4Kb);

4K QD32: Random write/read test (block size = 4Kb, queue depth = 32) for NCQ and AHCI;

The final result.

First, properly test your SSD or any other hard drive! The fastest SSD will read and write information is the area filled with only zeros. To do this, in CrystalDiskMark, select file from the menu File->Test Data->All 0x0000 (Fill).

I have this SSD too SSD Kingston HyperX 3K (120 GB, SATA-III) and now I will perform a simple test.

IN operating system SSD drive under the letter D:, which means in the program settings select the letter D: and click

The test of our SSD for sequential read and write speed begins!

In a minute we get the result. Sequential read and write speed 543 MB/s (read), 507 MB/s (write)

Now we do the test differently. File->Test Data->Default (Random)

After a minute, we get a result completely different from when testing with the All 0x0000 (Fill) option. Sequential read and write speed 499 MB/s (read), 149 MB/s (write)

Also important for good SSD operation correctly connect it to your motherboard. All solid-state drives have a high-speed SATA 3.0 (6 Gb/s) interface, and your motherboard probably has such connectors. For example, mine motherboard ASUS P8Z77-V PRO has four SATA 6 Gb/s ports and they are marked accordingly SATA 6G, which means we connect the SSD according to the marking.

To connect SSD SATA interface 6 Gbps use native data SATA cable 6 Gbps!

In this article you will learn how to find out the main characteristics of solid-state drives, as well as how to test them. For this operation, we took the SSD-Z utility, which we will review today. It's free and has useful features in your arsenal. You can download it immediately from here.

When you first launch the program, many users will immediately say that it is similar to or other similar utilities, and yes it is, so it will be easier for them to understand it.

On the tab Device shows all disk information. Now I will explain each point presented, this is for those who do not know English.

• Device name – name of the solid-state drive;
• Firmware - ;
• Serial Number serial number;
• Controller – controller used in the disk;
• Technology – production technology;
• Сells – type of memory cells used;
• Launch Date – drive creation date;
• TRIM – Availability;
• Capabilities – technologies supported in SSD;
• Interface – interface through which the disk is connected;
• SMART – disk status;
• Temperature – current disk temperature;
• POH – operating time;
• Capacity – disk capacity;
• Bytes Written – byte written;
• Volumes – drive letter;
• Partitions – partition type ();
• Sector Size – size of one sector.

This is interesting:

As you can see, there are a lot of parameters and this is only on one tab. All information is important and may be useful in some situations. Of course, if the utility database contains your drive model, then the information will certainly be found. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to recognize information about the newly released disc. Although there are utilities that take information from the system and other sources for absolutely any drive.

Checking the SSD Status

I already wrote an article about how this program has similar function and it's called S.M.A.R.T. I will write more about this technology, so stay tuned for site updates.

In this section you will find information on read errors, disk operating time, temperature and other useful information. Of course, when using the utility you will get much more information.

When you go to a tab Partitions we receive data about the partitions and disks that exist on the computer. To select another disk, you need to select it at the bottom of the program.

SSD speed testing

IN SSD-Z utility There is also a SSD speed testing function. It is located on the tab Benchmark. Since the program is still raw, it is better not to expect objective information from the results.

The rest of the tabs don't offer much useful information. I think the program is not bad and it still has room for improvement. It would not be bad if all the functions were organized in the best possible way and collected in one place, so as not to use several programs.

Diagnosing the condition of an SSD disk is a necessary thing, because the resource of such media is limited. Although the creators write the approximate date of completion of the models, you can extend the life of the device if you check it regularly.

SSD speed test

There are no moving parts in the solid state design, and the information is transmitted by DDR DRAM. SSD works in a similar way. Data recording is carried out in parallel. There is no need to transfer files for further reading to the reading heads, as is the case with HDDs. SSDs do not have such heads at all, which increases performance.

For comparison: the average speed of modern HDDs with average characteristics is 60 MB/s; a solid-state drive, with all other parameters being equal, during testing shows a result 4-5 times higher. It’s the same story with startup: for a HDD this process from zero to full readiness will take 30-60 seconds, while an SSD will handle it twice as fast.

Drive speed indicators are determined by various testing programs (benchmarks), which, as mentioned above, consume SSD resource. In order not to waste the power of the SSD drive, it is better not to abuse such software. But sometimes you need to do this, because how else can you find out if the disk is ok. Below are programs created to check such media for errors, as well as speed tests that do not exhaust disk resources.

Programs for monitoring the status of SSD drives on Windows:

How to test SSDs? Below are six utilities that will help with this.

The software makes it possible knowledgeable users not only identify the problem, but also quickly eliminate it. The option is also suitable for monitoring hard drives.

Basic functionality BY:

• Temperature control and device performance check.
• Automatic power control in emergency situations, as well as creating backup copies of data.
• Review and configuration of S.M.A.R.T. attributes.
• Time schedules.
• Generating reports on the device status.
• Troubleshooting caused by system errors.
• This SSD checking utility also allows you to protect the information on it using a password.
• Hotkey support.

The software has more than enough advantages, but unfortunately, there are also disadvantages. First of all, there are certain difficulties in work. It will not be so easy for complete beginners to understand the program’s capabilities and function management. And the second significant drawback is the consumption of system resources, namely RAM And central processor, even in standby mode. If there is not enough power in the computer, it will “slow down” during diagnostics.

Another suitable software for diagnosing the condition of solid state drives, which can also be applied to HDDs. The program interacts comfortably with all versions: from XP to “ten”.

3 main features of the program:

1. The software is suitable for both personal PCs or laptops and corporate networks.
2. The utility analyzes the drive and provides a lot of useful data, including the estimated expiration date, as well as supported specific model operating modes.
3. Working with Active SMART is convenient because it comes with a very detailed guide. In addition, you can select the Russian language, which makes the interface intuitive.

The program was created to monitor the status of a data warehouse with support for S.M.A.R.T technology. The utility is shareware. The test period for the software is two weeks. Testing SDD for errors is easy with this program: it can report problems in a timely manner. In addition, the developers have introduced a simplified mode for beginners.

What HDI can do:

• show basic characteristics disk;
• check for errors, test performance;
• describe the current state of the drive in text form;
• give recommendations;
• test temperature;
• predict T.E.C. date (Threshold Exceed Condition) - the approximate period of termination of work.

There is also an advanced mode for experienced ones, which makes it possible to learn more about your SSD.

Conveniently, there is no need to know the specific values ​​of the parameters. The program performs all actions automatically, after which it gives a corresponding signal with a color indicator.

A tool that will help you find problems with your drive. With its help you can save time and save information. You don't have to pay to download the program. It is suitable for different versions Windows, including XP (SP2), Vista, seven, as well as 2003 (SP2), Server 2008

6 main software skills:

1. checks disk status automatically;
2. monitors event logs;
3. immediately reports the problem;
4. reports once a week;
5. supports RAID;
6. checks using S.M.A.R.T technology. or user script.

Like other utilities, this one has its drawbacks. Thus, the system indicates an error, but does not provide hints on how to solve it. You can easily receive messages from the program by email if you use an SMTP server. But if the user has access to an Exchange server, then setting up notifications will require a lot of tinkering.

Important: Not all software versions are designed for SSDs.

Programs for monitoring the status of SSD drives on Mac:

The utility shows everything that is going on with the disk, in great detail. Namesake tab installed SSD- will tell you a lot of useful things. In particular, it reflects:

• basic information;
• problem reports;
• health indicator.

Note: To display all indicator icons, you need to go to the appropriate tab.

The statistical section deserves special attention. Having entered it, you can see:

• how many logical sectors the disk wrote and read;
• are there any errors in the interface;
• information that concerns forced reboots etc.

All errors are recorded, which will allow us to determine the cause of the problem and eliminate it in a timely manner. Testing is performed automatically when the system starts. It is available in two modes - fast or long.
The software works effectively. Easy to use and quite simple, except free version, alas, no.

A worthy product from the developers of the once popular Trim Enabler. The creators did a great job. This is evident in both design and functionality. Now this is not just the software needed to run Trim, but a full-fledged product for monitoring SSDs.

Dashboard shows:

• creator company and disc serial number;
• the volume that the carrier recorded or counted;
• capacity (this concept also includes free and filled volume);
• "thermometer";
• "health" in general.

Everything is laid out comfortably: only facts and nothing superfluous.

In the Visual section- data about the content stored on the drive. They are sorted by sector, which will allow you to immediately track large files.

Health, as is already clear from the title of the section, provides detailed information about the technical condition of the device, allowing the user to assess its condition.

Advice: When buying an SSD, you need to pay attention to the form factor, because not every option will fit into a laptop or be suitable for a desktop PC.

The program can also track the path to a specific file and clear the cache. A free week is given to evaluate the capabilities of Disk Sensei, then you will have to spend money on a license.

How to check Ssd disk for errors? Currently, the most popular alternative to traditional hard drives(HDD) are solid state drives(SSD). Distinctive feature An SSD drive is that it is a non-mechanical drive based on memory chips.

The main advantages of SSD drives include:
- high speed work (speed of reading/writing information);
- stable file reading time;
- high mechanical resistance (shock and vibration resistance);

No noise during operation;
- low energy consumption;
- small dimensions and weight.

However, despite all the advantages, SSD drives also have significant disadvantages:
- higher cost per gigabyte compared to HDD drives;
- limited number of rewrite cycles;
- impossibility of recovering deleted information and information after electrical damage.

Considering the main disadvantage of SSD drives (limited number of rewrite cycles), you should promptly diagnose and monitor the condition of your SSD drive.

Examination SSD status-disk diagnostics provides diagnostics of the drive for errors, analysis of operation statistics and expected service life. All these factors allow you to assess the actual condition of the disk under test and take the necessary measures to prevent the loss of valuable information.

To solve the problem of diagnosing and monitoring the status of SSD drives, there are specialized programs. In this case, consider free programs which support the Russian interface:
- SSD Life
- Hard Disk Sentinel
- CrystalDiskInfo

SSD Life

The SSD Life program allows you to assess the status of your SSD drive and display this information in a simple and convenient form. After launch, based on the data received from the controller, depending on the intensity of disk usage, the utility calculates and displays the health percentage and the estimated remaining service life of the disk. Besides general information about the disk status by clicking on the “S.M.A.R.T.” button, the results of the analysis of various S.M.A.R.T. parameters will be displayed in a separate window.

On the official website you can download a free portable version (does not require installation and displays statistics on the disk status immediately after startup) and an installation version (requires installation and allows you to check the disk status in background.

Hard Disk Sentinel

Hard program Disk Sentinel is designed to monitor and analyze the health of hard drives. Allows you to diagnose and warn about problems caused by decreased performance and possible failures. The program runs in the background and constantly monitors the status of disks in real mode time, including temperature and S.M.A.R.T. parameters, and also measures the current data transfer rate. The program has a wide range of additional options, allowing you to configure various settings.

You can download the free Trial version on the official website.

CrystalDiskInfo

CrystalDiskInfo program - allows you to evaluate state of hard disks that support S.M.A.R.T. technology Monitors and determines the health status and current temperature of your drive.
The program outputs detailed information about disks (firmware, serial number, interface, power cycles, total operating time, etc.), as well as characteristics of the S.M.A.R.T. self-diagnosis system. (reading errors, performance, operating time, number of on-off cycles, temperature, etc.). The program allows you to effectively check your disk for bad sectors.

On the official website you can download a free portable version (does not require installation) and an installation version (requires installation and allows you to check the disk status in the background).

The programs discussed above are designed for diagnosing and monitoring disks; they have different functionality and the final choice depends only on your preferences. By analyzing the information received, you can draw appropriate conclusions about the reliability of the disk and thus protect yourself from possible problems in the future.
The only recommendation that you should definitely follow is to regularly monitor the status of your disk and perform backup copies valuable information.