To receive an untainted result, no other programs should be running during the measurement, and enough main memory should be free. The speed measured is therefore somewhat faster than in actual practice. The small program reads directly from the drive for a while regardless of the filesystem. After a few seconds, the data transfer rate appears (in megabytes per second, MBps). To determine how fast a drive delivers data, use the hdparm -t /dev/sdaĬommand.
If NCQ is deactivated, check the BIOS to find out whether the drive is running in AHCI mode, which is also necessary for other functions such as energy management. Ideally, this leads to an increase in speed. SSDs, on the other hand, distribute write accesses more efficiently across storage blocks. This technology makes it possible for the hard disk to sort queries from the system in such a way that the heads take the shortest possible path. On newer hard disks, you should check whether Native Command Queuing (NCQ) is to be found under Commands/features. Owners of an SSD especially can find out quickly whether they are running the current firmware version. The designation and firmware version number are always listed at the top under Model Number and Firmware Revision.
The information that hdparm delivers is dependent on the device. USB-to-IDE adapters often cause problems because they do not transmit the (complete) ATA or ATAPI commands to the drive. Hdparm accepts any device as mass storage that is connected to an (E)IDE, SATA, or SAS interface, including, therefore, DVD drives and SSDs. The | more option makes sure the large amount of information does not simply rush unread through the terminal. The tool will deliver all available data about the chosen drive – in this case, the first hard disk sda. Figure 1: Hdparm lists the hardware properties of a six-year-old hard disk with a 320GB capacity.
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