<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/" xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" type="topic" style="task" id="disk-benchmark" xml:lang="da">

  <info>

    <link type="guide" xref="disk"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.6.2" version="0.2" date="2012-11-16" status="review"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.10" date="2013-11-03" status="candidate"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.13.92" date="2014-09-20" status="review"/>

    <credit type="author">

      <name>GNOME Documentation Project</name>

      <email>gnome-doc-list@gnome.org</email>

    </credit>

    <credit type="author">

      <name>Natalia Ruz Leiva</name>

      <email>nruz@alumnos.inf.utfsm.cl</email>

    </credit>

   <credit type="editor">

     <name>Michael Hill</name>

     <email>mdhillca@gmail.com</email>

   </credit>

    <include xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="legal.xml"/>

    <desc>Run benchmarks on your hard disk to check how fast it is.</desc>

  </info>

<title>Test the performance of your hard disk</title>

  
To test the speed of your hard disk:

  <steps>

    <item>

      
Open <app>Disks</app> from the

      <gui xref="shell-introduction#activities">Activities</gui> overview.

    </item>

    <item>

      
Choose the disk from the list in the left pane.

    </item>

    <item>

      
Click the menu button and select <gui>Benchmark disk…</gui> from the

      menu.

    </item>

    <item>

      
Click <gui>Start Benchmark…</gui> and adjust the <gui>Transfer

      Rate</gui> and <gui>Access Time</gui> parameters as desired.

    </item>

    <item>

      
Click <gui>Start Benchmarking</gui> to test how fast data can be read

      from the disk. <link xref="user-admin-explain">Administrative

      privileges</link> may be required. Enter your password, or the password

      for the requested administrator account.

      <note>

        
If <gui>Perform write-benchmark</gui> is checked, the benchmark

        will test how fast data can be read from and written to the disk. This

        will take longer to complete.

      </note>

    </item>

  </steps>

  
When the test is finished, the results will appear on the graph. The green

  points and connecting lines indicate the samples taken; these correspond to

  the right axis, showing access time, plotted against the bottom axis,

  representing percentage time elapsed during the benchmark. The blue line

  represents read rates, while the red line represents write rates; these are

  shown as access data rates on the left axis, plotted against percentage of

  the disk traveled, from the outside to the spindle, along the bottom

  axis.

  
Below the graph, values are displayed for minimum, maximum and average

  read and write rates, average access time and time elapsed since the last

  benchmark test.

</page>