How to test speed of hardrives?

[luiscm]

Hi.. I was wondering if there is a utility that will allow me to test the speed of two IDE HD on my computer?

I want to set them to optimum speed..

thanks

 

[pmonett]

Hello,

As far as testing drive performance is concerned, you can go to Tucows (

http://www.tucows.com)

and search in their vast utilities section. I'm certain you can find something there.

But for "setting" hard drives to their optimum speed, I am afraid the approach is wrong.

The only thing you can do to get HDDs to perform their best is to give them the best possible environment. That is, supposing you have ATA100 drives, an 80-pin IDE cable, one drive per cable.

Other than that, there is little you can do. Which is why there are so many discussions on how to connect additional CD-Rs, HDDs and DVD units.

Soon, these will all become non-issues with the advent of Serial ATA, where each unit will have its own connection. Then there will be (hopefully) no more issues and each unit will perform to the best of its abilities.

 

[bcastner]

This site will test and offer suggestions:

http://www.pcpitstop.com/

 

[Lammbock]

Use PCMark02. It will generate a comparable score.
SiSoft Sandra offers a toot to benchmark your perpormance as well.

 

[luiscm]

Thanks for the tips.. I will give them a shot..

-Lui