Performance in FC-Test

Now we will check the real-life performance of the hard disk drives in our own FC-Test utility which measures the time it takes to create (i.e. write), read and copy certain file-sets which differ in the number and size of the files included. The real-life speed of the drive is then calculated.

The Windows and Programs patterns consist of many small-size files, while the MP3, ISO and Install patterns include fewer files of a bigger size. Two 32GB partitions are created on the drives for the copy operations. The patterns are then copied within one partition (Copy Near) and from one partition to another (Copy Far).

We’ll first examine the case of FAT32.

The first diagram shows the file creation (write) speed. The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) is the best in the three large-files patterns, but loses the top place to the Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) in the small-files patterns. The latter takes the third place when processing large files, however. The other drive from Seagate was the second best at processing large files, while the oldest product in this review, Hitachi 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00), has the worst performance in this test.

The Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) is the best across all the five patterns at reading files. The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) is again faster than the other Seagate which in its turn equals the performance of the Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00). The drive of the older 7K60 family is everywhere the slowest.

The Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) is the best at copying files of three patterns within one partition and is good in the remaining two. The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) seems to be the second best in this test and it is once again better than the SATA-interfaced Seagate, in four patterns out of five. Strangely enough, it is not the old 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00), but the new Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00) that has the worst performance in this test.

When the files are copied from one partition into another, the Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) has the highest speed in three patterns out of five. The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) is the second best in this test and the SATA version of this drive is again a little slower. The struggle of the 60GB models ended in a victory of the older one, again.