How to Run Disk I/O Tests on Windows | Your Solution Awaits!

Updated By

Tracy King 

Written By

Cici 

Last Updated on May 10, 2024

We are well into the 21st century, and everyone expects their digital devices, such as computers/laptops, to have fast performance. On the other hand, no one wants to waste time sitting there and waiting for data to load on their computer unnecessarily.

If you're a Windows user who cares about disk speed, then you should know about disk I/O. No matter how advanced the other hardware in your computer is, if it has poor disk I/O performance, your device will take longer to boot up, struggle with multitasking, and programs will load slower than they used to.

This article aims to help Windows users understand how to perform Windows disk I/O testing, identify disk performance issues, and utilize I/O testing tools.

What Is Disk I/O on Windows?

Generally, I/O refers to the input/output functions of a physical disk in a computer. The I/O process encompasses various aspects involved in reading from or writing to a hard drive. During maintenance periods or when running large programs, high I/O rates can occur, putting significant strain on the disk's performance.

Read: Disk Performance Test on Windows

Also, hard disk drives (HDDs) perform I/O operations much slower than solid-state storage, like RAM. On average, HDDs are 2,000 times slower at I/O operations than RAM. Disk I/O issues are usually harder to troubleshoot because they manifest as memory or CPU problems. To avoid disk performance issues, you should regularly test your disk's I/O with the right tools. You should also watch out for the following common signs of disk performance issues:

• High I/O load during peak hours or maintenance.
• Longer write or read request times when using multiple programs.
• Slower query performance due to memory pressure.
• The database server running slowly due to CPU stress.
• Concurrency issues caused by locking/blocking.

How to Run a Disk I/O Test on Windows: 2 Methods

This section includes two utilities to test the performance of Windows PC hard disk drives and SSDs:

Method1: Running a Disk I/O Test with Partition Master

Method 2: Running a Disk I/O Trial with Performance Monitor

The first solution is a professional disk and partition management tool. Let's see how it works.

Method 1: Run the Disk I/O Test via Partition Master

tools Partition Master is a user-friendly and secure disk I/O testing tool. It's a handy utility that offers multiple features to analyze and ensure optimal hard drive performance. DiskMark is one of the key features of this tool, providing more accurate disk I/O test results. tools Partition Master is compatible with all versions of Windows. If you're not tech-savvy but need a quick solution, this tool is not to be missed.

Download the Partition Master tool, and run an I/O test on the disk in Windows according to the steps.

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. Then click the Download button to activate the "DiskMark" feature under "Discover".

Step 2. Select the target drive, test data, and block size from the drop-down menus.

Step 3: Once all settings are configured, click “Start” to run the benchmark. You'll then see metrics like sequential and random read/write speeds, I/O operations, and latency.

Click Start.

With this tool, you can easily and quickly test hard drive speed. The Partition Master utility covers most aspects of disk and partition management. Here are more of its powerful features:

• Fix Slow Hard Drive Problem
• Check Hard Drive Health
• Increase C Drive Partition Space
• Create/Resize/Delete Partitions

If you encounter any hard disk partition errors, you can use a partition manager to fix it!

Method 2: Run a Disk I/O test using Performance Monitor

You can get a rough idea of your current I/O workload using the Performance Monitor, a built-in Windows tool that helps users estimate current disk input/output performance. Follow these steps to monitor disk I/O on Windows with Perfmon counters:

Step 1: Press the Windows key, type Perfmon, and click Run as administrator.

Step 2: In the left sidebar, find the Performance section.

Step 3: Click Data Collector Set, and then choose User Defined.

Step 4: Right-click User Defined, and then click New and Data Collector Set.

Step 5: Type the name you want for your test (for example, Test 1) and select Create Manually (Advanced).

Step 6: Click Next, and under Create Data Log, select the Performance Counter radio button.

Step 7: Click on “Finish”.

Note: The dataset (Test 1) appears in the right pane.

Step 8: Double-click the dataset to verify that DataCollector01 appears.

Step 9: Double-click DateCollector01, and select Add.

Step 10: From the list of available counters, locate and select PhysicalDisk.

Step 11: Select the counters to verify:

• Disk read time percentage
• Disk time percentage
• Disk write time percentage
• Idle time percentage
• Current disk queue length
• Disk reads/second
• Disk writes/second
• Splits I/O per second

Select "Physical disk":

Step 12: Click on Add and close the Add Counter window.

Step 13: Change the Sampling Interval back to 30 seconds in the Performance Counters window, and then click Next.

Step 14: Choose where to save the Perfmon log file.

And then you could start collecting new datasets to capture I/O streams.

Step 15: Expand Performance > Data Collector Sets > User Defined > {Report Name}

Step 16: Right-click on the name of the report and select Start.

Step 17: After capturing some data, right-click on the report and click "Stop".

As you can see, the process is quite complicated. If you are not familiar with the tool, Checking the disk with Disk Manager is your best bet and will give you a more precise result.

Conclusions

After effectively testing your I/O disk performance, you can take actions to address possible performance issues and lower the risk of unexpected disk failures. We highly recommend using the Partition Master tool since you might get confused when performing I/O tests with Windows Performance Monitor.

Frequently Asked Questions About Disk I/O Testing on Windows with UTF-8 Encoding

Please refer to our FAQ section for more information about Windows disk I/O tests.

< strong > 1. How do I monitor disk I/O on Windows?

In Windows, there are two ways to monitor disk I/O. However, using the Performance Monitor can be complicated. Instead, you can use the Partition Master tool for this task.

Step 1: Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, and then click "Disk Benchmark" in the "Discovery" area.

Step 2: Choose your drive, test data, and clock size.

Step 3: Click “Start,” wait a moment, and check the speed and I/O figures.

2. How do I fix hard drive I/O errors?

Here are some quick fixes for hard drive I/O errors:

• Restart your computer/laptop.
• Try accessing the drive/device again.
• Run the CHKDSK utility.
• Update the device driver.
• Check the disk's health status.

To fix these errors, you can use the disk partition tool Partition Master to help you.

3. What is a good SSD IOPS?

For an SSD, we recommend 256GB. If you can only get a 128GB drive, it will work, but if you plan on gaming or downloading lots of content, we'd suggest at least 250GB.