This is the Drive Speed Test Tool 3 Read Me.
Please choose one of the following topics:
Thank you for using the Drive Speed Test Tool (DSTT) version 3.
The tool is used to determine the maximum read / write speed of
computer data storage devices like hard disks, solid state drives,
memory cards etc.
You can also use the tool to test the performance of network shares
(eg. NAS) which are accessible from your PC.
The tool has a build in online database (internet connection required)
which allows you to compare your results with others.
In contrast to other tools available the DSTT does not measure the
maximum data transferrates that your dirve could potentially reach,
in fact it does measure the rates that your hardware setup can deliver.
(Real Performance)
In order to get exact results please stop all programs that use CPU,
memory and misk ressources.
The DSTT has 3 test settings which simulate different usage modes.
The first mode is Single IO (SIO) ('Serial write folowed by serial read').
This option measures the real read and write speed of the device.
It will first write a number of files with a given size (see test settings)
to the device and afterwards read them back from the device into memory.
The files are written / read one after one (=serial), so there is only
one read or write process at a time. The time needed to write / read
a file is measured which allows to compute how fast the amount of data
could be transferred to and from the disk.
Altough the SIO test is likely to return the best results it does not do
'real life testing' as normally your PC does not just read or write to one file
at a time. Normally the PC does access multiple files at once.
Speaking of the physical operations inside a hard disk (not to be confused by a SSD)
the test does not stress the disk as well, as a hard disk can relatively well
do one read or one write operation at once and the heads will not have to move often.
The second mode is Multiple IO (MIO) ('Muliple writes followed by multiple reads').
This test writes multiple files of the given size in parallel, waits for
all device IO to be completed and afterwards reads those files back into
memory in parallel as well.
The number of parallel writes / reads is defined by the "Threads" setting.
If you set up 4 threads this does mean that 4 files are written or read in parallel.
The measured results will be less than in SIO mode. But as you only do writes or
reads at a time the operating system and the hardware can optimize the IO process to a certain level.
If you're testing a hard disk it's heads will have to move to the different write (or read) positions.
The more threads you specify the more the heads will have to move and therefore the
performance will go down as you increase the number of threads.
The third mode is Mixed IO (XIO) ('Multiple writes and reads mixed').
This mode does 'real life testing' as it does multiple writes and reads in
parallel which simulates the operating process of a PC to its best.
The number of parallel writes / reads is defined by the "Threads" setting.
If you set up 2 threads this does mean that 1 file is written and 1 file is read in parallel.
If you're testing a hard disk it is likely you will hear it working as the heads
will have to move to the different read/write positions frequently.
The more threads you specify the more the heads will have to move and therefore the
performance will go down as you increase the number of threads.
The DSTT allows you to disable the operating system cache (always disabled by default).
This cache will put the data into the computers RAM instead of writing it to the disk.
Normally the cache is enabled and speeds up operations enormously. In order to really
test the disk you will have to disable the cache.
The DSTT also allows you to disable the drives internal cache. Harddisks normally have
a small RAM chip (8-64MiB)soldered onto the disk controller which will be filled with data before
it is really written to the hard disk. This cache can be disabled on many hard disks but
not on all. In order to test the physical hard disk performance you could disable this cache.
(Normally enabled by default.)
The Drive Speed Test Tool 3 is used to measure the speed of disk drives,
sd/mmc cards, usb thumb drives and even network shares.
The Drive Speed Test Tool 3 is delivered as a 7-Zip archive.
To get things started you at first may want to extract this archive using
the free
7-Zip archiver that is avaliable for many plattforms.
After extracting the archive start the Drive Speed Test Tool 3 by
double clicking on the file "DriveSpeedTest.exe". If it gives you
an error message, that required components are not installed see
System Requirements below and install the .NET Framework 4.
If the tool successfully was started you are promped to select a
drive / path to test. Please select the destination drive.
(Please note that starting from Windows Vista you are not allowed
to use "C:" as a direct destination. DSTT will use a temporary subfolder for testing.)
After selecting the drive the tool will test the available free
space on the drive and set up the test parameters automatically.
On drives with less than 4GB available space it will use all available
space for testing. For drives with more than 4GB it will only use 4GB.
You can increase the amount of data by modifying the samples and file-size parameters.
To start the test, press the start button. The tool will automatically
switch to the "Chart" (or in M/XIO mode to te results) tab page and display the current
progress in the status bar at the bottom right corner of the window.
If you want to abort the test press the 'Abort' button and
wait until the current
process is finished. If you do not wait (eg. kill the process) the temporary test
files will not be removed automatically and clogging your disk until you remove them manually!
If the test completes the tool will switch to the "Results"
tab page and display the results.
You can save the results as a text file and the chart as a png
file if you like. Also I would like to encourage you to upload
your results to the online database.
If testing hard disks or SSDs you should do a SIO test to see how fast the disk is at
simple tasks. Additionally you should do a XIO test with medium (50 MiB) to large sizes (256 MiB).
This will simulate the normal usage of hardisks / ssds best.
If you're testing SD/MMC cards for mp3 players or cammeras, you should use SIO testing and set
the file size to be smaller (5-15MiB) and the number of samples to be
higher (100-200 samples). This best simulates the intended use as camera images (jpeg)
and mp3s are 5-15 MiB each. Only if you plan to use the card for other things
(ready boost, boot drive) you should use XIO with 50-256 MiB per file and lower the sample rate.
If you're testing network shares you shouldd choose few (5-15)
samples and large files (50-150 MiB) in SIO mode.
Attached in the download archive you find some example test results.
DSTT also allows you to modify the buffer sizes. Normally the operating system (Windows)
does this for you, but if you are an expert you could go to the 'Advanced' tab and change
the buffer settings as you like.
The Drive Speed Test Tool 3 is a complete rewrite of the successfull Hdd Speed Test Tool Classic.
The Drive Speed Test Tool 3 is written in C# and requires the
.NET Runtime Framework (4.0 or newer)
for Windows.
Tested Operating Systems:
- Windows XP Pro SP3 (Limit the file size to 50MiB!)
- Windows 2003 Server (Limit the file size to 50MiB!)
- Windows Vista 32 Bit SP2
- Windows 7 32+64 Bit
- Windows 8 64 Bit