Performance in FC-Test

As always, FC-Test is the last of our tests. It reflects the real-life performance of hard disk drives. This benchmarking tool measures the time it takes to create (i.e. to write), to read and to copy a few sets of files that differ in the size and number of files included. Knowing this time we can calculate the speed of the drive.

As you remember, the Windows and Programs patterns consist of many smaller files, while the other three patterns include a few larger files. Two 32GB partitions are created on the drives for the copy operations and the file patterns are first copied within the same partition (copy near) and then from one partition to another (copy far).

I begin with the NTFS results, and the first diagram shows the speed of creating (writing) the file patterns. The 100-gigabyte Maxtor is the slowest drive in every pattern. The closest drive to it is the other Maxtor attached via USB 2.0.

When they were reading files, the junior model from the OneTouch II family proved to have a slightly higher performance that the senior model attached via USB 2.0: the 100-gigabyte model is ahead of the 250-gigabyte one in four patterns out of five. Meanwhile, the Maxtor E01G250 profits a lot by being attached to the computer through a FireWire connector.

The next test action is copying file within the same partition. The Maxtor E14E100 proves to be considerably faster than its opponents when processing the two patterns that consist of numerous small-size files. It also wins the test of copying the Install pattern. In the remaining two cases, it cedes the first place to the senior model from Maxtor when the latter is attached via FireWire.

Copying files from one partition to another produces a picture which is almost the same as the previous diagram. Once again the 100-gigabyte external hard disk drive from Maxtor wins three patterns out of five.