How can I determine the throughput of a local storage device?
HD Speed is a Utility made by SteelBytes. It performs a read test on a disk array and can help reveal drive deficiencies.
From the "Drive" drop menu, select a stripe volume or a specific drive to test.
Note that you may have to change the Block Size default. On a VideoRAID SR, the appropriate block size is 4MB.
Click Start to test the selected stripe volume or drive.
Click Stop to finish the test.
The "Current" and "Average" results give you an idea of the storage read speed.
Notes:
- You can test individual drive from a stripe volume to verify them separately. Refer to Windows Disk Management to identify the proper drives that are part of the stripe volume to test (\\.\PHYSICALDRIVEx). When you test individual drive, the read speed will drop as it cannot sustain the same speed as a full stripe, but you can compare each drive result and notice a drive that performs lower to the others. Also, testing an individual drive will blink its led on the storage chassis for easy identification.
- You can type a Duration, and the test will count down to 00:00, at which point the read test will end automatically.
- If you select the Log results to file, make sure to run the executable from a location other then this DVD read only device, otherwise the log will not write or save its results.
- The results in this example above are based on a read test performed on an Avid MediaDock Ultra320 with 12 73GB hard drives.
- Do not select the Write test option on drives that contain critical media files or they could be affected.
HD_Speed utility download