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, and then calculates the speed of the drive. This utility gives you an objective picture of performance because it emulates the real operating situations for the hard drive.

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, and the file-sets are then copied within one partition (Copy Near) and from one partition to another (Copy Far). The creation (writing) and reading of the file-sets is done in the first partition.

The drives will be first tested with FAT32.

The first diagram shows the speed of creating (i.e. writing) the file-sets. The Hitachi HTS721010G9AT00 wins the two patterns that consist of a lot of small files. In the other three cases it is faster than its Serial ATA version, but slower than either of the Seagate drives.

The Hitachi HTS721010G9AT00 is the absolute winner when reading all the five file-sets. Note, however, that its speed isn’t much higher than that of its Serial ATA version.

The Hitachi HTS721010G9AT00 also looks better than the others when copying files within the same disk partition. It is a little ahead of its Serial ATA version and is also faster, except for one instance, than the Seagate drives.

It’s similar to the previous diagram: the Hitachi HTS721010G9AT00 is again the fastest drive by the results in all the patterns. And it is also just a little faster than its Serial ATA version.