How can I check the speed of my SATA2 HDD?

[Cheex]

I have a SATA2 (3.0 Gb/s) HDD from WD.

How can I check the actual transfer-speed/bandwidth of the drive?
Or do I have a few things mixed up?

 

[imported_heyguy]

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach

 

[okeefe58]

RIGHT CLICK MY COMPUTER TO DEVICE MANAGER- RIGHT CLICK ON YOUR SATA CONTROLLER- PROPERTIES- THERE SHOULD BE A SPEED TEST FOR HARDDRIVE UNDER PRIMARY CHANNEL HEADING

 

[okeefe58]

P.S. I DONT HAVE A SATA, SO I DONT KNOW FOR SURE, BUT THERE IS ONE FOR MY 2 PATA DRIVES (WIN XP) UNDER IDE ATA/ATAPI CONTROLLER-RIGHT CLICK PROPERTIES-PRIMARY CHANNEL-- DONT SEE WHY THERE WOULDNT BE ONE FOR SATA DRIVES

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: heyguy
http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach

Thanks for the link. This works fine. I did a quick bench and my score is 166.5 MB/s.
How good is that?

 

[ECUHITMAN]

I know this thread is old, but I just found it while looking for the same info. I downloaded the above program and got a bench mark of 202 MB/s with my WD1600YS SATA 2 drive.

The reason why I looked for it was Sandra listed my current drive as performing the same as my old SATA 150 drive and wondered why. Apparently the constant read speed is the same but the burst speed is around 80 MB/s faster on my new drive (which should help with booting and other types of tasks?). The thing I don't get is why are SATA 2 drives reported to have a 3.0 Gb/s (375 MB/s) when they really do not get close to that speed. At 202 MB/s my drive is running at the speed my SATA 150 drive is reported to be able to run.

 

[Fraggable]

Hard drives have never performed at the max speed of their bus. Ever since ATA33 drives you've only been able to get drives to perform at about half of their max bus speed. There are some exceptions like Raptors which usually perform above half their bus speed, or SCSI drives. Why that is? I dunno.