Linux Check IDE / SATA SSD Hard Disk Transfer Speed ====== So how do you find out how fast is your hard disk under Linux? Is it running at the SATA I (150 MB/s) or SATA II (300 MB/s) or SATA III (6.0Gb/s) speed without opening computer case or chassis? You can use the **hdparm or dd command** to check hard disk speed. It provides a command line interface to various hard disk ioctls supported by the stock Linux ATA/IDE/SATA device driver subsystem. Some options may work correctly only with the latest kernels (make sure you have cutting edge kernel installed). I also recommend compiling hdparm with the included files from the most recent kernel source code. ### How to measure hard disk data transfer speed using hdparm Login as the root user and enter the following command: `$ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sda` OR `$ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/hda` Sample outputs: ``` /dev/sda: Timing cached reads: 7864 MB in 2.00 seconds = 3935.41 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 204 MB in 3.00 seconds = 67.98 MB/sec ``` For meaningful results, this operation should be **repeated 2-3 times**. This displays the speed of reading directly from the Linux buffer cache without disk access. This measurement is essentially an indication of the **throughput of the processor, cache, and memory** of the system under test. [Here is a for loop example][1], to run test 3 time in a row: `for i in 1 2 3; do hdparm -tT /dev/hda; done` Where, * **-t** :perform device read timings * **-T** : perform cache read timings * **/dev/sda** : Hard disk device file To [find out SATA hard disk link speed][2], enter: `sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda | grep -i speed` Output: ``` * Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s) * Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s) * Gen3 signaling speed (6.0Gb/s) ``` Above output indicate that my hard disk can use 1.5Gb/s, 3.0Gb/s, or 6.0Gb/s speed. Please note that your BIOS / Motherboard must have support for SATA-II/III: `$ dmesg | grep -i sata | grep 'link up'` [![Linux Check IDE SATA SSD Hard Disk Transfer Speed][3]][3] ### dd Command You can use the dd command as follows to get speed info too: ``` dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/output.img bs=8k count=256k rm /tmp/output.img ``` Sample outputs: ``` 262144+0 records in 262144+0 records out 2147483648 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 23.6472 seconds, **90.8 MB/s** ``` The [recommended syntax for the dd command is as follows][4] ``` dd if=/dev/input.file of=/path/to/output.file bs=block-size count=number-of-blocks oflag=dsync ## GNU dd syntax ## dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/test1.img bs=1G count=1 oflag=dsync ## OR alternate syntax for GNU/dd ## dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/testALT.img bs=1G count=1 conv=fdatasync ``` Sample outputs from the last dd command: ``` 1+0 records in 1+0 records out 1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 4.23889 s, 253 MB/s ``` ### Disks & storage - GUI tool You can also use disk utility located at System > Administration > Disk utility menu. Please note that in latest version of Gnome it is simply called Disks. #### How do I test the performance of my hard disk using Disks on Linux? To test the speed of your hard disk: 1. Open **Disks** from the **Activities** overview (press the Super key on your keyboard and type Disks) 2. Choose the **disk** from the list in the **left pane** 3. Select the menu button and select **Benchmark disk …** from the menu 4. Click **Start Benchmark …** and adjust the Transfer Rate and Access Time parameters as desired. 5. Choose **Start Benchmarking** to test how fast data can be read from the disk. Administrative privileges required. Enter your password A quick video demo of above procedure: https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/disks-performance.mp4 #### Read Only Benchmark (Safe option) Then, select > Read only: ![Fig.01: Linux Benchmarking Hard Disk Read Only Test Speed][5] The above option will not destroy any data. #### Read and Write Benchmark (All data will be lost so be careful) Visit System > Administration > Disk utility menu > Click Benchmark > Click Start Read/Write Benchmark button: ![Fig.02:Linux Measuring read rate, write rate and access time][6] ### About the author The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. He has worked with global clients and in various industries, including IT, education, defense and space research, and the nonprofit sector. Follow him on [Twitter][7], [Facebook][8], [Google+][9]. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- via: https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-fast-is-linux-sata-hard-disk.html 作者：[Vivek Gite][a] 译者：[译者ID](https://github.com/译者ID) 校对：[校对者ID](https://github.com/校对者ID) 本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译，[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出 [a]:https://www.cyberciti.biz/ [1]:https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/bash-for-loop/ [2]:https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-command-to-find-sata-harddisk-link-speed/ [3]:https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/Linux-Check-IDE-SATA-SSD-Hard-Disk-Transfer-Speed.jpg [4]:https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-linux-unix-test-disk-performance-with-dd-command/ [5]:https://www.cyberciti.biz/media/new/tips/2007/10/Linux-Hard-Disk-Speed-Benchmark.png (Linux Benchmark Hard Disk Speed) [6]:https://www.cyberciti.biz/media/new/tips/2007/10/Linux-Hard-Disk-Read-Write-Benchmark.png (Linux Hard Disk Benchmark Read / Write Rate and Access Time) [7]:https://twitter.com/nixcraft [8]:https://facebook.com/nixcraft [9]:https://plus.google.com/+CybercitiBiz