Windows PC Hard Drive Speed Test Guide [Your Free Guide Here]

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Sherly 

Written by

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Last updated on April 22, 2024

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A slow computer is generally frustrating because it makes using your computer difficult. If your computer is running as slow as a snail, your aggravation is justified. There are many reasons why your computer might be running slowly, with the hard drive being a primary factor. You can confirm that your hard drive is slow by testing its speed.

Not sure how to test your disk speed? This article will tell you everything you need to know about testing your disk speed, and how to do it. You'll also learn how to optimize your computer after testing your disk speed. We'll recommend a great tool for testing disk speed and optimizing it, too.

When Do You Need to Test Disk Speed?

There are many reasons why you should regularly check your disk speed and run an HDD benchmark. It can help you get a better insight into the inner workings of your computer, especially when it's running very slow. You can test disk speed and take necessary measures to boost your computer's performance. Here are some common issues that a disk speed test can help with:

1. Slow computer

When troubleshooting a slow computer, running a hard drive speed test can help you identify potential issues with your hard drive. By measuring its read and write speeds, you can pinpoint problems related to your storage space. This will help you take appropriate steps to address the issue.

2. Hard Disk Health Status

Regularly testing your disk speed can clue you into the health of your hard drive. Slower read and write speeds could indicate some serious issues with your drive, allowing you to fix or replace it before it fails.

Upgrade hardware

Hard drive read and write speeds can also indicate when it's time to upgrade your system hardware. A hard drive speed test can determine whether upgrading or expanding your hard drive will improve your system's performance.

4. Video Games

If your computer games run slowly or take a long time to load, slow disk speed may be the culprit. Run a Windows or Mac disk performance test to keep your system running smoothly for an optimal gaming experience.

5. System Performance Optimization

Once you know the speed of your hard drive, you can take more accurate measures to optimize your system. You won't waste time running multiple processes to boost its performance. It helps you identify the main issue and take the most appropriate action.

How do I test my disk speed on a Windows PC?

Testing the speed of a disk on a computer isn't a complicated process, and there are several ways to do it. However, before using any method, make sure it conducts an exhaustive test to get the most accurate results possible. We'll introduce you to an excellent tool that can test your disk's speed and optimize your system.

Firstly, download a hard drive speed testing software.

AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional is the best tool to test the system disk speed. Its "DiskMark" feature can run a comprehensive speed test and accurately determine the read and write speed of the hard drive. Once you know the speed of your hard drive, it will provide many appropriate measures to fully optimize your system. It is a complete solution to solve all hard drive issues.

Main features

• Surface Scan: Disk Partition Master lets you run a full surface scan to check the disk's health, fix bad sectors, and more. It helps ensure your hard drive stays in top condition.

• 4K Alignment: Hard disks, including SSDs, can become bogged down with junk data that affects their speed. This tool lets you 4K-align your SSD drives to clear out this garbage and boost performance.

• Merge Partitions: With this tool, you can easily merge two different partitions into one. The data in the partition will not be affected during the merging process. This is a great way to extend your C drive if it's running out of space.

• Change cluster size: You can use this tool to change the cluster size on your hard drive for better performance. It is especially useful for boosting SSD performance. Partition Master can change the cluster size without formatting the hard drive.

These features, among many others, make the Partition Master tool the perfect solution for dealing with hard drive issues. You can also download the Partition Master tool for free and run a disk speed test with ease.

Next, simply click to start the disk speed test.

Testing the disk speed with Partition Master is easy and quick. Simply follow these easy steps to test the disk speed of your computer's hard drive:

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

Click the Download button for DiskMark.

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 disk test. You'll then see read/write speeds for sequential or random I/O, as well as latency data.

Appendix Trick: Tweak Disk Speed after Testing

Now that you've tested your hard drive speed on your computer, you may want to optimize your system if your hard drive is slowing it down.

1. Disk Defragmentation

Data fragmentation on your hard drive can seriously affect its performance, as the system has to search in multiple locations on the disk to access a single file. You'll need to defragment your hard drive to speed it up.

Also read: How to Defragment Disk in Windows.

2. Enable write cache

Enabling the hard drive's write cache can significantly increase its performance. This allows the hard drive to temporarily store data in memory before writing it to the disk. With fewer writes to the disk, the overall performance of the drive will improve.

3. 4K SSD Alignment

Aligning your SSD to 4K improves its performance. This ensures that the SSD can use its file system's smallest 4K sectors to save data, which significantly increases read and write speeds.

For a step-by-step guide, please follow this link to find the correct solution:

4. Upgrade to a Solid State Drive (SSD)

Upping your hard drive to an SSD will speed it up and improve your computer's performance. SSDs are much faster than HDDs and have quicker read and write speeds, which will significantly decrease your computer's boot-up and app-loading times. Check out the guide on how to clone your HDD to an SSD in Windows 11 for a step-by-step process.

For a comprehensive guide on how to speed up your computer's hard drive, please refer to this tutorial page for assistance:

Increase Hard Drive Speed in Windows 10

In this article, we will offer you some of the most effective methods to fix this issue and boost disk speed in Windows effectively.

Final Award

A slow computer can hinder productivity and make for a frustrating work experience. A sluggish hard drive can contribute to poor system performance, but it's manageable with the right steps. You can download and use a free tool like Partition Master to help you manage and test your hard drive speed. It offers various features for testing and optimizing disk speeds.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Disk Speed Testing

In this FAQ section, we address common questions and concerns regarding disk speed testing.

1. How do I test my hard drive speed?

You can check your hard drive's read and write speeds through the Windows Task Manager. Follow these steps to examine your computer's disk speeds:

Step 1: Right-click on the Taskbar on your Windows computer, and select Task Manager. In the Task Manager, go to the Performance tab.

Step 2: You can see the listed hard drives on the left. Select one to test its reading and writing speed.

2. How to check hard drive speed in Windows 10? To check the hard drive speed in Windows 10, follow these steps: 1. **Using the built-in "Resource Monitor"**: - Press `Win + R` to open the Run dialog. - Type `resmon.exe` and press Enter. - In the "Resource Monitor" window, click on the "Disk" tab. - Here, you'll see current disk activity and read/write speeds. 2. **Using third-party software**: - There are several free disk benchmark tools available, such as CrystalDiskMark, HD Tune, or AS SSD Benchmark. - Download and install the tool of your choice. - Open the software and follow the prompts to select the hard drive you want to test. - Run the benchmark test, and the software will display the read/write speed and other performance metrics of the hard drive. 3. **Command Prompt method**: - Press `Win + X`, then choose "A" or "Command Prompt (Admin)." - Type `diskpart` and press Enter. - Type `list disk` to identify the number of the disk you want to check. - Type `select disk <number>` (replace <number> with the number of your disk). - Type `smartctl -t short /dev/sda` (for some systems, you might need to use `smartctl -t short /dev/<drive_name>`, like `/dev/sdb`). - Wait for the test to complete, then type `smartctl -H /dev/sda` to view the drive's health status and some performance data. Please note that these methods mainly provide read/write speed information and not real-time disk speed. If you need to monitor disk activity in real-time, consider using the "Resource Monitor" or a dedicated disk monitoring utility.

On Windows 10, you can use the Command Prompt to check your disk speed. Here's how to check your disk speed on Windows 10:

Step 1: Open Command Prompt as an administrator on your computer by searching for it.

Step 2: Now run the "winsat disk – drive X" command to see your hard drive's read and write speed. Replace "X" with the name of the drive you want to test.

3. When to Run a Disk Speed Test on Windows 11?

There are several reasons why you might want to run a disk speed test in Windows 11. If your computer is running slow, files are taking a long time to transfer, or you're experiencing lag in games, a disk speed test can help identify the problem.