How to Test Hard Drive Speed on Windows (Includes Disk Speed Test Tools)

Unlock the true potential of your computer with simple speed tests. Learn how to test hard drive speed with the top tools in the market to boost productivity and maximize performance:

Your computer’s hard disk drive is an essential hardware component. It is a nonvolatile storage device that keeps your data, files, applications, and operating system stored even after the computer shuts down, unlike random access memory (RAM), which loses its content when the computer shuts down.

The cost of a newly purchased computer depends on the motherboard, memory, central processing unit, graphical processing unit, and storage. The price of a hard drive with 2 TB of internal digital storage capacity compared to 1 TB of digital storage capacity is 82% higher compared to 500GB costs 149% higher.

Simple Ways to Test Disk Speed: Explore Top Tools

The price paid is worth 2 TB stores twice the data compared to 1 TB HDD. Hard disk drives store non-volatile digital data like multimedia, documents, and files, along with the operating system. SATA 6 Gb/s interface of hard disk handles seamless performance and improved data transfer speed.

Hard Drive Speed

You may observe your computer run sluggishly or may not respond when it is subjected to heavy-duty tasks such as too many applications or processes running simultaneously, multiple programs or tasks beginning at the start of a computer, automatic updates activated, add-ons and extensions, etc.

The performance and enhanced digital storage capacity for applications, and multimedia data like videos, audio, or large data files, depend upon the speed of the hard disk drive. There are many free software available to check the speed of hard disk and in this article, we will discuss each of these software.

There is an inbuilt utility program like Task Manager that helps users monitor and manage processes and applications running on their computers or a text-based interface like command prompts that are available in your computers that provide them with a platform to interact with your computer by running the commands.

In addition, there is free online software that you can download and can retrieve the hard drive speed of your computer. There are signs like your computer takes too long to open. It may take considerable time to transfer files, or it may hang or lag in running all the processes or tasks.

You can try to resolve the slowing of the hard drive speed by freeing up disk space by removing unnecessary files/folders that are occupying space, replacing your old drive with a new drive can improve the speed of the hard drive, can upgrading outdated disk driver for improved performance.

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What is a Hard Drive Speed Test

Hard drive speed testing will determine how quickly the hard drive can write or read data. Hard drive speed can impact performance, especially with large data files. This will help in estimating how much time it will take to copy the data file from one location to another, as it involves reading, transferring, and writing data.

The higher rate of pulling and pushing data files during transmission per second is always desired. Hard drive speed depends upon revolution per minute of hard drive, size of the cache, type of technology and interface, availability of trim support, access time, partition managed on disk, the diameter of hard drive platter, and hard drive’s physical form factor.

We will discuss here various ways of testing hard drive speed.

Using Task Manager

• Right-click on the Windows icon OR type task manager in a search text field.
• A menu will be displayed. Click on Task Manager.
• You can press Ctrl + Shift + Esc simultaneously to open Task Manager.
• Click on the Performance tab.
• Under the Performance tab, you will find labels & icons for CPU, Memory, Disk, Wi-Fi, and GPU.
• Click on Disk (HDD) on the left panel.
• You will observe a graph being created – Disk transfer rate vs Active time.

Below these graphs, you will find readings for Active Time, Average Response Time, Read Speed, and Write Speed

Using Command Prompt

• Type the command prompt in the text field near the Windows icon, you will find the Command Prompt in the menus.
• Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator from the menu list.
• A window will appear with the buttons Yes and No.
• Click on Yes, command prompt window will appear.
• type winsat dist – drive C (you may select C or the drive of your choice).
• Press the Enter key.
• Windows System Assessment tool will run as shown below:

Also Read => Possible Ways to Open Command Prompt in Windows 10

Folder Transfer Test

A simple way of testing the speed of your hard drive is by checking how fast the transfer of data takes place while moving one folder.

• Select one folder that has lots of files in it.
• Right-click on the folder and select the Copy option.
• Go to a different location. Right-click your mouse and select the “Paste” option to place the copied folder here.
• File transfer will begin showing the percentage of files being transferred and the speed it takes to complete.

Delete Temporary Files

• Click on the PC icon on your monitor.
• You will see available disks on your computer under the Devices and Drive section.
• There are temporary files that get created when you work on your files.
• These files take up a lot of space and slow down the hard drive.
• You can locate these temporary files at the following locations:
  • C:\Windows\temp
• Delete these temporary files

This will improve the performance of the hard drive

Enable Write Cache

Write caching is a feature that helps to improve hard disk drive speed by storing data temporarily in a cache prior to writing on the drive. This cache is fast compared to the hard drive speed.

• Type Device Manager in the search text field near the Windows icon at the bottom left corner of your screen.
• Click on Device Manager listed on the menus.
• Under the Device Manager interface, look for Disk drives.
• Click on Disk drives. You will find a list of drives on your computer.
• Right-click on one of the drives and select Property from the menu.
• Click on the Policies tab under the Property window.
• You will find a checkbox with the title Enable write caching on the device.
• Select the checkbox.
• Press the OK button.

The process of defragmenting the hard drive will organize scattered data fragments, which will help the drive make space for new data and find information quickly.

• Click on the PC icon on your monitor.
• You will see available disks on your computer under the Devices and Drive section.
• Right-click on one of the drives and select Properties from the list.
• Under the Properties window, select the Tools tab.
• Go to the Optimize and defragment drive section.
• Click on the Optimize button.
• Another window labeled Optimize drive will appear, with available drives displayed.
• Click on the Optimize button.

The process of defragmenting the selected drives will begin.

Partition of Hard drive

Partitioning the hard drive is found to improve the speed of the hard drive and results in more organized data, thereby faster disk speed.

• Type Computer Management in the search text field.
• Double-click on Computer Management from the list.
• A computer management window will appear. Click on Disk Management on the left panel.
• A list of drives available on your computer will be listed, and a corresponding graphical representation of their details will be seen for each disk.
• Right-click on the drive you wish to partition and select Shrink Volume from the menus.
• A window will open, displaying the total size before shrinking, the size available in shrink space, and amount of space to shrink, and the total size after shrink.
• Enter the amount of space to shrink and press the Shrink button.

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List of the Best Tools to Test Hard Drive Speed

You have the option to access expert opinions and detailed analysis of hard drive speed tests from multiple third-party tools for hard disk speed. Choose from the tools listed below:

• ATTO Disk Benchmark
• AIDA 64 Extreme
• AS SSD Benchmark
• Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
• CrystalDiskMark
• CPUID HWMonitor
• DiskMark
• DiskCheck
• Geekbench
• HD Tune
• SysGauge
• Novabench
• Parkdale
• iBoysoft DiskGeeker

ATTO Disk Benchmark

ATTO Disk Benchmark is the most reliable hard drive speed testing tool with feature offerings like continuous testing, support for multiple queue depths, and overlapping I/O. You can download it for free, install it by running Benchmark.exe, select the drive of your choice, and click the Start button to continuously retrieve accurate test results.

AIDA64 Extreme

AIDA64 Extreme is recommended for hard disk speed tests for Windows 10/11-based computers and gives comprehensive insights into system performance, including software diagnostics, audits, and stress testing. You can download the trial version for 30 days, install it, and then select Tools –> Disk Benchmark, Options –> Write Tests, Click About and type of test you want to run, and then Start button.

Extreme comes for 59.95 USD for installation on 3 PCs. It offers a wide variety of tests and is compatible with most processors.

AS SSD Benchmark

AS SSD Benchmark is an excellent tool for SSD speed testing. It is compatible with all Windows XP and newer operating system versions, multilingual support, and testing without cache. It is a freeware you can download and install and select your drive and test type to start speed testing of your SSD installed.

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test

Blackmagic comes with a single-window view, compatible with Yosemite (OS X 10.10), and a simple configuration for measuring CPU, RAM, graphics, and hard drive disk speed. It is free to download. Click the Start button after it is installed. Its cross-platform compatibility, user-friendly interface, and free-to-use are attractive propositions for hard drive speed testing.

CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark is a simple and powerful tool for hard disk drive speed tests for Windows 10/11 computers. Its user-friendly interface comes with different measuring modes and is compatible with internal/external drives.

You can download it for free, install and configure settings like your disk, size number of runs, etc.). Click on the All button to start the test for the hard drive speed test. It is best suited for price-conscious users who need a simple interface with straightforward results.

CPUID HWMonitor

CPUID HWMonitor is a free hard disk drive speed that gives HDD, graphics card, and CPU statistics of your computer. CPUID HWMonitor also displays both write and read data transfer speeds. In addition, CPUID HWMonitor displays the live temperature of the hard drive and utilization of all the partitions of hard drives.

DiskMark

DiskMark is especially for various partitions of hard drive speed testing used for Windows 10/11. DiskMark comes with displaying read and write speeds in graphical representation with average, maximum, and minimum hard drive speeds.

It is for Windows 2000 and XP hard drive speed testing. You can download it for free, install it and click on the Run button, select a hard drive from the drop-down menu of your choice, and click on the Start button.

DiskCheck

DiskCheck specifically calculates the Read speed of the hard drive using the cache stored in your computer. DiskCheck on launch will scan all your installed drives in your system and display the speed of these drives when click on the SpeedTest button.

Geekbench

Geekbench comes with universal hard drive testing for all operating systems like Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. It offers real-time testing, customized browser, and system stability measurements for your computer. You need to stop all the applications running on your computer, download Geekbench, and run the benchmarks button to analyze hard drive speed.

HD Tune

HD Tune is a free tool for hard drive speed tests offering detailed drive information, and read the speed of the hard drive for the free version and drive health and error scan for the paid version. You can download a free version of HD Tune, install it and select the drive of your choice for the speed test, click the Start button.

The interface will display the average, minimum, and maximum speed of your selected hard drive in MB/sec units of measure. You also can retrieve burst rate, CPU use, and access duration in addition to disk drive speed. The report is available for download in PNG image format.

SysGauge

SysGauge is a free hard disk drive speed test and monitoring tool for computer performance tool. It offers real-time hardware statistics and monitoring. It gives a dashboard giving statistics of hardware components of your computer like rate of disk transfer, CPU use, and rate of cache used, memory – available and used in your computer.

Under the Disk monitoring category, it displays graphically display disk activity, disk write and read transfer speed, IOPS read and write disk, and disk transfer speed for all the disk partitions.

Novabench

Novabench offers online free (basic and novabench plus) and paid (novabench pro) versions assessment for hard drive speed. The free basic version allows you to check online – CPU, RAM, GPU, and Disk tests. You can download it for free, install it on your computer, and click on the start tests. Novabench Basic will begin testing all four tests one by one.

On completion of these tests, create reports that display scores for each of these tests (CPU, RAM, GPU, and Disk). You can Click on the View performance charts and comparison button for detailed online statistics and analysis.

The paid version offers downloading of the test results in Excel and CSV format. Free download test tools are available for Windows 10 & 11 with 64-bit AMD processors, Windows 11, MACOS 11, and Linux distros from the year 2020 onwards.

Parkdale

Parkdale hard drive speed testing tool comes with various access modes like file access, block access, and quick access, measures in KB, MB, or GB per second of units, and is compatible with Windows and Mac OS. You can download the Parkdale tool for free, select the drive and test mode of your choice, and click on the Start button for hard drive speed testing.

iBoysoft DiskGeeker

With six test modes for external drives and two test modes for internal drives, iBoysoft DiskGeeker is designed for your Mac-based computers. The testing tool comes with features like disk error troubleshooting, cloning of hard drive, random and sequential speed tests. You can download the software and install it, select your hard drive, and test mode for speed test.

How to Test a Hard Drive with Built-in Applications

In Windows, you can test hard drive speed using the following commands or utilities:

Command Prompt

• Type the command prompt in the text field near the Windows icon, you will find the Command Prompt in the menus.
• Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator from the menu list.
• A window will appear with the buttons Yes and No.
• Click on Yes, command prompt window will appear
  • Type – wmic diskdrive get status command
    • for disk functioning perfectly – result display OK
    • for imminent drive failure – the result will display Pred Fail, the reason can be data loss
  • Type –
    • winsat disk -seq -read – drive drivename – sequential input/output read performance of selected drive (drivename can be C or D)
    • winsat disk -ran -write -n 2 – random input/output write performance of the second drive (n 2)

CHKDSK

A Windows utility that searches/scans and resolves hard drive errors, identifies bad sectors, and frees up disk space by removing junk files

• Type the command prompt in the text field near the Windows icon, you will find the Command Prompt in the menus.
• Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator from the menu list.
• A window will appear with the buttons Yes and No.
• Click on Yes, command prompt window will appear
  • chkdsk /r and chkdsk /f – scans NTFS Windows file system on Windows XP or later versions

Crystal Disk Info

• Download and install CystalDisk info software from https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskmark/
• Open Crystal Disk software and select Run as administrator.
• Select the disk you wish to check/test the speed.
• Select Test Count (3 is recommended), Test Size (1GiB – default), NVMe SSD.
• Click All to validate all the items.
• The test will provide benchmark results.

The test may vary based on the Hard Drive, version of the software, and different system environment

Disk Check Up

Compatible with Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, DiskCheckUp can support Maxtor, Hitachi, Fujitsu, SeaGate, and Western Digital Hard Drives. It is used to check SMART – self monitoring, analysis, reporting technology – that reports data points for monitoring and reporting the Hard Drive and the SSD condition.

The free edition of DiskGenius

Disk Genius is mainly used for restoring and backups, migration of Windows OS to USB/SSD/HDD, safe cloning of partitions and disks, image hard drive for update, and data protection for servers and computers

HD Tune Pro version

HD tune is storage utility software for SSD, and HDD and is used to measure the performance of storage devices like SSD or HDD of type 2 NVMe

How to test Hard Drive Speed on Windows 10/11 computer

winsat disk command at the command prompt – run as administrator will display read and write speed on the screen. Disk Drive speed depends upon SATA version, Disk density, Disk Cache, and revolutions per minute at which the hard disk platter moves.

EaseUs partition master can be downloaded, activate DiskMark feature in the Discovery section, select test data, target drive, and block size, and click the Start button will scan the drive and calculate read/write, Input/output, and delay time – parameters to calculate hard drive speed.

You can validate the performance of NVMe SSD, SATA SSD, and M.2 discs, all types of external hard drives, flash memory cards, and USB drives.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The hard drive of your computer acts as non-volatile storage and keeps your data, application, and operating system organized, allowing your device to perform at its best.

In this article, we have discussed various ways to test hard drive speed through inbuilt utilities available on your device and online free or paid hard drive speed testing tools. We also discussed what parameters affect the speed of a hard disk drive.