Oct 25, 2018.
Benchmark your SSD or hard disk speed | 17 comments | Create New Account
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That second command isn't going to measure the read speed of your disk at all. It's reading from /dev/zero and writing to /dev/null; both are virtual devices. The first command already wrote out a temporary file, so just read from that: For a better view of disk performance, these commands should be run with varying block sizes (bs=) and the results plotted. This is left as an exercise for the reader.
Thanks. The submission had the same command twice, and as it was anonymous, I couldn't contact the poster. I did some Googling and found that second command. It seemed to work for me, but I've changed it in the hint.
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Mac OS X Hints editor - Macworld senior contributor
http://www.mcelhearn.com
Mac OS X Hints editor - Macworld senior contributor
http://www.mcelhearn.com
The read speed test is flawed as written. Using /dev/zero as dd's input and output file doesn't hit the disk at all and will return ridiculous speeds like 15-20 GB/sec. The proper way to do the read test is to be to dd the tstfile created by the write benchmark into /dev/null (but only after clearing the RAM cache by using the 'purge' command).
This one-liner will test the write speed, clear the cache, properly test the read speed, and then remove tstfile to reclaim disk space:
dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024k of=tstfile count=1024 && purge && dd if=tstfile bs=1024k of=/dev/null count=1024 && rm tstfile
This one-liner will test the write speed, clear the cache, properly test the read speed, and then remove tstfile to reclaim disk space:
dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024k of=tstfile count=1024 && purge && dd if=tstfile bs=1024k of=/dev/null count=1024 && rm tstfile
Here's what I get using this method (and dividing by 1048576 to get Mb/sec):
Internal laptop hd (7200 rpm, sata): Write=42.99 Mb/sec, Read=38.09 Mb/sec
External G-Raid (esata): Write=134.76 Mb/sec, Read=192.32 Mb/sec
External Seagate hd (laptop drive, USB-2): Write=33.59 Mb/sec, Read=36.38 Mb/sec
External G-Raid (Firewire 800): Write=60.79 Mb/sec, Read=66.17 Mb/sec
Encrypted sparsebundle image on external G-Raid above (esata): Write=68.66 Mb/sec, Read=81.33 Mb/sec
Internal laptop hd (7200 rpm, sata): Write=42.99 Mb/sec, Read=38.09 Mb/sec
External G-Raid (esata): Write=134.76 Mb/sec, Read=192.32 Mb/sec
External Seagate hd (laptop drive, USB-2): Write=33.59 Mb/sec, Read=36.38 Mb/sec
External G-Raid (Firewire 800): Write=60.79 Mb/sec, Read=66.17 Mb/sec
Encrypted sparsebundle image on external G-Raid above (esata): Write=68.66 Mb/sec, Read=81.33 Mb/sec
That's not really very fast for Thunderbolt.
I bought a Factory Refurb LaCie Little Big Drive for $229 (LaCie.com), removed the drives and the fan, and replaced the drives with a pair of SSDs. Using RAID0, I get around 450MB/s read and 360MB/s write speeds with every test I've tried. It's much faster than the internal SSD in my 2011 iMac.
Yes, the WD My Book is a bit slower, but it has no fan, which is a big plus. I wonder, though, if I should be getting higher speeds.. Oh, BTW, I'm not using RAID 0. I'm using mine as two 2 TB disks. That cuts the speed in half. I bought a Factory Refurb LaCie Little Big Drive for $229 (LaCie.com), removed the drives and the fan, and replaced the drives with a pair of SSDs. Using RAID0, I get around 450MB/s read and 360MB/s write speeds with every test I've tried. It's much faster than the internal SSD in my 2011 iMac.
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Mac OS X Hints editor - Macworld senior contributor
http://www.mcelhearn.com
Mac OS X Hints editor - Macworld senior contributor
http://www.mcelhearn.com
The freeware Xbench's Disk Test offers a nice method for getting a few different kinds of disk benchmarks.
To obtain speed expressed in MB/sec, just append the following string to each one of the commands:
i.e: and No need to google around.
Also keep in mind it's only as fast as your system's slowest bottleneck. I realized this myself when I recently upgraded my internal HDD to SSD. Obviously I didn't do proper research. I got a top of the line model and was expecting super fast speeds around 460MB/s on SATA-III, only to realize that my 2008 MBP only has SATA-I so I get about 120 MB/s.
Probably still faster than HDD, but I never did measure the speed before I upgraded.
You wouldn't save a great deal of money going sata-I or II ssd and this way you are future proof if you'll get a new mac.
That thought had occurred to me too. However if I was going to upgrade my Macbook Pro the new one would probably already have SSD and wouldn't be user-replaceable (like in the new Retina Display version)
…or you can just use a disk benchmarking tool like bonnie, which is available to be installed from MacPorts.
When I tried:
time dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024k of=tstfile count=1024 2>&1 | grep sec | awk '{print 'scale = 2 ; '$(NF-1048576) '}' | bc
I got:
awk: non-terminated string }cale = 2 .. at source line 1
context is
>>> <<<
awk: giving up
source line number 2
Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4
That awk line has an extra quote, it appears.
Any way, I found that this works:
time dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024k of=tstfile count=1024 2>&1 | grep sec | awk '{print $1 / 1024 / 1024 / $5, 'MB/sec' }'
You don't need bc at all, awk can do the arithmetic. I am dividing the total bytes by the total seconds and by
By the way, my standard internal drive in my 27' iMac (2.8GHz, a couple of years old) did the writing at 91 MB/sec.
Even better, leave out grep also. Awk can do its own pattern matching:
time dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024k of=tstfile count=1024 2>&1 | awk '/sec/ {print $1 / $5 / 1048576, 'MB/sec' }'
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One additional thing that might be worth mentioning..your test file (tstfile) should be larger than the amount of physical ram.
This prevents caching and artificially inflated read speeds. Allow me to demo this on my snazzy new iMac with the PCI-e drive..
The system has 16GB of ram, a 3.5 GHz i7 and 512 GB PCI-e SSD:
madht@host (]> 01:19:24
~> time dd if=/dev/zero bs=2048k of=tstfile count=1024 2>&1 | awk '/sec/ {print $1 / $5 / 1048576, 'MB/sec' }'
732.213 MB/sec
real 0m3.278s
user 0m0.002s
sys 0m1.155s
Wow faaaast writes - love this drive..
now check the file size
madht@host (]> 01:20:12
~>ls -al tstfile
-rw-r--r--+ 1 user staff 2147483648 Jan 4 13:30 tstfile
2GB, way less than 16GB.
Now lets Read it back..
madht@host (]> 01:30:19
~> time dd if=tstfile bs=2048k of=/dev/null count=1024 2>&1 | awk '/sec/ {print $1 / $5 / 1048576, 'MB/sec' }'
6262.12 MB/sec
real 0m0.329s
user 0m0.002s
sys 0m0.329s
Mother of God!! 6.2 GB/sec!!
Hmmm..that can't be right.
So lets try a much larger test file.
NOTE: The file size does not *need* to exceed your total ram, just the amount you have free. If you feel this is a valuable use of your time ;) hint, hint -- then adjust block sizes and counts to just exceed the amount of free memory you have available.
Here Goes with a 16GB file:
madht@host (]> 01:30:44
~> time dd if=/dev/zero bs=2048k of=tstfile count=8192 2>&1 | awk '/sec/ {print $1 / $5 / 1048576, 'MB/sec' }'
728.792 MB/sec
real 0m22.583s
user 0m0.007s
sys 0m5.543s
Still bloody fast writes, yum.
Check the size (I always do)
madht@host (]> 01:42:45
~>ls -al tstfile
-rw-r--r--+ 1 user staff 17179869184 Jan 4 13:42 tstfile
Yep, that one there is a whale that can't be crammed into my ram.
madht@host (]> 01:42:49
~> time dd if=tstfile bs=2048k of=/dev/null count=8192 2>&1 | awk '/sec/ {print $1 / $5 / 1048576, 'MB/sec' }'
779.598 MB/sec
real 0m21.018s
user 0m0.006s
sys 0m4.323s
Aaaah much more like it. And still pretty performant, yo.
One more thing to add and I don't know if was already mentioned or not tl:dr -- this is a sequential test only. iow - this is as fast as it gets and in no way indicative of how your drive performs when ~30-50% of its reads and writes are random - i.e. during regular multi application usage of the OS. ioMeter is the best open source benchmarker out there however they don't fully support OSX, just the worker engine binaries -- so iometer itself would have to run on a separate machine. But it's doable ;)
Would anyone be able to tell me how to use these commands to test my USB 3.0 drives or Thunderbolt drives?
At present, almost all types of works are done using the computer system. So, it is very important to check the performance and effectivity of the computer for efficient work. The performance of the computer is dependent on the condition of the hard drive. As hard drive stores all the data permanently, so if it gets slow then the computer automatically starts displaying sluggish behaviour. So, it is very important for regularly checking, cleaning and updating the speed of the hard drive. Sometimes, people may have to change their hard drive for running the computer smoothly.
Now, the question arises how can we check the speed of the hard drive. There are many software available which can be used for hard drive speed test of PC. However, for better results you software plays an important role. So, make sure that the software is reliable and effective before using it for checking the speed. In this article, you will get the list of the best software for checking the hard drive speed for both Windows and macOS. You will find the steps to use that software for hard drive speed test as well. Go through the article thoroughly to know about it more.
1. HD Tach
HD Tach is a very powerful tool which can be used to bring out the hard drive speed test in Windows PC. You can download this software by clicking here.
This software is capable to read all the parts of the hard drive thoroughly. You can use this to check the burst speed as well. With an average speed report, HD Tach reads the data of the hard drive both in a sequential and random way. You can obtain all the data acquired while checking the hard drive in a spreadsheet.
Compatibility: Windows
Steps to use it:
- Download and install this software.
- Go to Local Disk (C:) and then right click on HD Tach.
- Go to Compatibility and then select Windows XP (Service Pack 3) and “Run this program as an administrator”.
- Click on Ok> Run Test.
Hence, you will get the test results of the speed of the hard drive.
2. ATTO Disk Benchmark
ATTO Disk Benchmark is an amazing software to be used with a complex hard drive with overlapped input-output. No matter what is the number of queue depths, it carries its continuous testing of the speed of hard drive with its time mode feature. It enables the user to transfer sizes up to 64 MB. Diablo mac eleven mp3 downloader.
Compatibility: Windows
Steps to use it:
- Download and install it and then open its .exe files.
- Select the location of your hard drive and click on Ok.
- Wait until results are out.
In this way, get started with the process of testing the hard drive using this software. Stop motion free download mac.
3. Anvil’s Storage Utilities
Anvil’s Storage Utilities is a hard drive reader which gives the complete report about its flexibility and efficiency. You can use its tool to read and write the hard drive completely both using sequential and random operations. Its report is completely up to date and with all the elements and status necessary for the health of the hard drive. It runs three IOPS tests giving best results.
Compatibility: Windows
Steps to use it:
- Download and install the application.
- Open the app and get all the information related to your system.
- Make sure that configuration is correct by checking the settings.
- Now, tap on the “Start” button.
![Disk Speed Test Download Mac Disk Speed Test Download Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/8/126876868/867392388.jpg)
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In this way, the test will start resulting in the complete information.
4. RoadKil Speed Test
With the simplest and user-friendly interface, RoadKil Speed Test is a suitable hard drive tester for Windows system. You can check the speed of your hard drive to transfer data with its tool. You can set the benchmark and compare your own set of speeds with that.
Compatibility: Windows
Steps to use it:
- First of all, download and install the application.
- Open them all and enter the drive name to be tested.
- Click on “Begin test”.
In this way, you can obtain the hard drive speed and other necessary information using this tool.
5. Parkdale
Parkdale is multi-functioning software with many advanced tools to measure the speed of hard drives, network servers and CD ROM devices. You can use it in three different modes as per the preference i.e., FileAccess, QuickAccess and BlockAccess. It also calculates the transfer speeds of the hard disks in KB/s or MB/s.
Compatibility: Windows, Mac
Steps to use it:
- Download and install the application.
- Open the application and then select the hard drive which you want to calibrate. Among the given modes of this software, select one as per your choice.
- Now, click on the “Start” button.
In this way, you can start the process of testing your selected drive.
6. CrystalDiskMark
You can check the complete workability of your hard drive using CrystalDiskMark. It is a freeware utility with advanced tools which is helpful in reading and writing the hard drive using both sequential and random operations. You can check any of your drive including the external hard drive with this software. This software is very helpful for getting the performance status of the hard disk.
Compatibility: Windows
Steps to use it:
- First of all, download and install the CrystalDiskMark.
- Now, open the app and run the program to get the information about the software.
- Now, go to “Settings” and set the number of runs as “1”, size to test as “ 50 MB” and select the drive on which you want to run the test.
- Select the “All” button to process the test.
In this way, the process of the test starts running for the selected drive with the CrystalDiskMark.
7. BlackMagic Disk Speed Test
BlackMagic Disk Speed Test is an amazing application which you can use to check the speed of the hard drive on Mac. It has a very simple and intuitive interface with one window. You can start using it with very customizations in the settings. It checks the hard drive and calculates the speed of the hard drive to read and write in MB per second. You will really love this app to calculate the speed and compatibility with advanced tools.
Compatibility: Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite Akkurat pro font.
Steps to use it:
- Download and install the BlackMagic Disk Speed Test.
- It runs the test process in a single step. All you need to do is to click on the “Start” button. Hence, the process will get started.
- You need to select the target drive and mark the stress.
In this way, you will get your drive tested with its write and read speed.
8. NovaBench
If you are not satisfied with the previously mentioned software, then NovaBench is completely suited for checking the speed of the hard drive. It is featured with 3D graphics which gives the interface an effective look. This software has hi-tech tools to calculate the floating point value of the speed of the CPU. You can select any hard drive and get its performance and speed tested with this software.
Compatibility: Mac
Steps to use it:
- Download and install the NovaBench all on your system.
- Now, run the program.
- Before you get started with this software, make sure to close other running programs on the system.
- Now, go to Tests> Run All Tests.
In this way, you will get all the information about the hard drives on your computer screen.
9. Parkdale
Here comes another hard disk speed tester for you Mac PC i.e., Parkdale. This software comes in three different modes for calculating the status of the hard drive. Moreover, the transfer speed of the drive can also be calculated in kbps or Mbps using it. You can measure the speed of any hard drive, CD ROM devices and network servers.
Compatibility: Mac, Windows
Steps to use it:
- Run the program on your mac and select the drive to be tested. Now, select the mode in which you want to run the test.
- Select the “Start” button to run the process.
Also Read: How to remove write protection from memory card
10. Geekbench
Geekbench is a universal speed teaser of hard drives which can be used to calculate the speed and performance. It checks all types of status of the hard drive using you can which you can check the workability of your computer including all the management and applications. You can get 32-bit mode using its free trial. For 64-bit mode, you need to buy it from the website of the software.
Compatibility: Windows, Linux, iOS and Android
Steps to use it:
- You need to download and install the application on your Mac.
- For better optimization, close all the applications and windows on your computer.
- Now, run the program to get started.
- Click on “Run Benchmarks” to start the process of testing.
In this way, you will see all the results on your screen.
How to Check SSD Read and Write Speeds on Windows 10
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In this article, you have gone through all the features and ways to use different hard drives for Windows and Mac PC. You can use them to check the complete performance of the system using them. If you have any queries, then put it down in the comments section.