Just recently I was wondering what my quickest disk on my laptop was to store some files. I ran across a nice Linux tool that is worth sharing here: hdparm
Accessible as root (or sudo).
There are many options (just run it without any params to see them), but what I used was:
hdparm -tT /dev/sdb1
with this result:
/dev/sdb1:
Timing cached reads: 12622 MB in 2.00 seconds = 6315.83 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 76 MB in 3.05 seconds = 24.92 MB/sec
The above results are from an USB disk, but I also ran it on my internal disks.
For the fun some results.
USB strick
/dev/sdd:
Timing cached reads: 10842 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5424.47 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 38 MB in 3.02 seconds = 12.57 MB/sec
USB disk
/dev/sdc1:
Timing cached reads: 15708 MB in 2.00 seconds = 7860.72 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 74 MB in 3.02 seconds = 24.47 MB/sec
SATA disk
/dev/sda3:
Timing cached reads: 13126 MB in 2.00 seconds = 6568.08 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 258 MB in 3.01 seconds = 85.83 MB/sec
Accessible as root (or sudo).
There are many options (just run it without any params to see them), but what I used was:
hdparm -tT /dev/sdb1
with this result:
/dev/sdb1:
Timing cached reads: 12622 MB in 2.00 seconds = 6315.83 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 76 MB in 3.05 seconds = 24.92 MB/sec
The above results are from an USB disk, but I also ran it on my internal disks.
For the fun some results.
USB strick
/dev/sdd:
Timing cached reads: 10842 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5424.47 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 38 MB in 3.02 seconds = 12.57 MB/sec
USB disk
/dev/sdc1:
Timing cached reads: 15708 MB in 2.00 seconds = 7860.72 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 74 MB in 3.02 seconds = 24.47 MB/sec
SATA disk
/dev/sda3:
Timing cached reads: 13126 MB in 2.00 seconds = 6568.08 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 258 MB in 3.01 seconds = 85.83 MB/sec