HD Tune Pro manual version 4.60
HD Tune Pro manual
version 4.60
copyright (c) 2010 by EFD Software
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HD Tune Pro manual version 4.60
Table of Contents
1.Introduction................................................................................................................................................................ 3
2.Before you get started............................................................................................................................................4
3.System requirements..............................................................................................................................................6
4.Usage............................................................................................................................................................................. 7
5.Temperature statistics.............................................................................................................................................9
6.Benchmark................................................................................................................................................................ 11
6.1.Transfer rate.................................................................................................................................................... 11
6.2.Access time......................................................................................................................................................13
6.3.Burst rate.......................................................................................................................................................... 13
6.4.CPU usage........................................................................................................................................................ 13
7.File benchmark........................................................................................................................................................14
8.Random access....................................................................................................................................................... 15
9.Extra tests.................................................................................................................................................................. 17
10.Info............................................................................................................................................................................ 19
11.Health....................................................................................................................................................................... 21
12.Error scan................................................................................................................................................................ 24
13.Folder usage..........................................................................................................................................................26
14.Erase.......................................................................................................................................................................... 27
15.Disk Monitor.......................................................................................................................................................... 29
16.AAM.......................................................................................................................................................................... 30
17.Save options.......................................................................................................................................................... 31
18.Command line parameters..............................................................................................................................32
19.Contact information........................................................................................................................................... 34
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HD Tune Pro manual version 4.60
1. Introduction
HD Tune Pro is a hard disk / SSD utility which has the following functions:
• Benchmark: measures the low-level performance (read/write)
• File Benchmark: measures the file performance (read/write)
• Random Access: measures the random access performance (read/write)
• Extra Tests: includes several quick tests to show the most important performance
parameters (read/write)
• Cache Test
• Info: shows detailed information
• Health: checks the health status by using SMART, data can be logged
• Error Scan: scans the surface for errors
• Erase: securely erases all data from the disk
• Disk Monitor: monitors disk access
• Folder View: shows disk space usage for each folder
• AAM: reduces noise or increases seek performance
• Temperature display
HD Tune Pro may also work with other storage devices such as memory cards, USB sticks,
iPods, etc.
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HD Tune Pro manual version 4.60
2. Before you get started
WARNING!
Hard disks and other storage media can fail at any time without any prior warning.
Always make sure you have a backup of your important files especially if your hard disk is
acting strangely.
Unit of storage capacity
There is a lot of confusion when it comes to showing the capacity of hard drives. Hard drive
manufacturers use the SI notation where 1 KB equals 1000 bytes. Windows uses the binary
notation where 1 KB equals to 1024 bytes.
Although generally HD Tune Pro uses the binary notation, for showing the hard drive capacity
the SI notation is used. To differentiate with the binary notation, the first letter will be a non-
capital letter.
Comparison tables
1 kB 1 000 bytes 0.98 KB
1 mB 1 000 000 bytes 0.95 MB
1 gB 1 000 000 000 bytes 0.93 GB
1 tB 1 000 000 000 000 bytes 0.91 TB
1 KB 1 024 bytes 1.02 kB
1 MB 1 048 576 bytes 1.05 mB
1 GB 1 073 741 824 bytes 1.07 gB
1 TB 1 099 511 627 776 bytes 1.10 tB
Short Stroke
Short stroking is a technique to maximize performance by only using a small part of the hard
drive.
Hard drives are faster at the outer tracks because of the higher data density. A hard drive
starts reading and writing at the outer tracks. Speed decreases when the read/write heads
move towards the inner tracks.
By discarding the inner tracks the average speed will be higher. The seek times will also
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HD Tune Pro manual version 4.60
improve (decrease) because the read/write heads don't have to move long distances.
It's important to note that short stroking will not make your hard drive faster. It will only
instruct the operating system not to use the slow part of the drive.
The performance tests of HD Tune Pro include an option to specify the test capacity. This
allows to test the performance when short stroking is used.
This option also allows for an easy comparison between drives with a different capacity.
By setting the short stroke capacity to a value which is equal or lower than the capacity of the
smallest hard drive you will get a fair comparison.
For example: suppose you have a 120 GB hard drive and you're using 100 GB for the
operating system and applications. If you want to install the same operating system and
applications on a new, larger drive and want to see how it compares with the old hard drive
you can set the stroke capacity to 100 GB and test both hard drives.
4 KB Alignment
For optimum performance write operations on SSD drives should be done on a 4 KB
alignment which is the size of a memory page.
The Random Access and Extra Tests have an option to perform all read and write operations
with a 4 KB alignment. Enabling this option will simulate the behaviour on Windows Vista and
Windows 7 systems. Older Windows typically use unaligned partitions which could result in
poor performance with certain SSDs. The Info tab shows the alignment for each partition on
the disk.
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