Measuring the performance of a hard drive or SSD is not a simple task. The file format, operating system, the natural capacity of the controller, interface, available cache, NAND manufacturer, and even the age of the drive can modify the results, and that’s why our search for appropriate benchmarking tools never ends. Today it’s the turn of Disk Gazer, which includes graphs and advanced parameters not so common in this type of application.
The number of benchmarks focused on hard drives and SSDs is impressive. In fact, I think we can find one for each vision or theory for measuring speed. CrystalDiskMark is a kind of “de facto standard” in the market, but Size4KWrite proposes to escape the influence of the processor or memory during its tests, and ReadSpeed goes a step further, working under MS-DOS.
In any case, the user should have access to more tools, not fewer, so that they can find their own standard/method. With that in mind, we come to Disk Gazer, a free and open-source benchmark developed by “emoacht”, the creator of the Monitorian app for controlling screen brightness. In general terms, Disk Gazer measures sequential speed, but it has a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
Evaluate the performance of your disks and SSDs with Disk Gazer
Disk Gazer is completely portable and does not require installation. The interface may seem a bit intimidating at first, but a quick read of its readme file helps clear doubts. One click on the “Start” button starts a basic benchmark using factory parameters. “Run” sets the number of tests (maximum of 9), but we also find “Block” and its offset.
“Block” configures the size of the block in kilobytes, while the offset allows us to subdivide it to generate additional tests. For example, a 1024 KB block with a 1/32 offset produces 32 reads of 32 KB, which multiplied by 5 gives us 160 benchmarks to obtain a much more precise and stable graph.
Finally, we find “Area” and “Location”. On the “Area” side, we define the size of the surface to be evaluated in gigabytes, and “Location” handles the exact position. Another example: If you want benchmarks of the three gigabytes following the 150 GB mark, Disk Gazer will let you do it without problems.
Why is this useful? Because it helps evaluate the consistency and behavior of the drives across their entire extension, something essential when creating multiple partitions, or betting on “short stroking” on traditional hard drives.
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