Performance in FC-Test

Now we will check performance of the hard disk drives with the FC-Test program. Two 32GB partitions are created on the drives and formatted in NTFS and then in FAT32. After that a file-set is created of the hard disk. It is then read from the disk, copied within the same partition and then copied into another partition. The time taken to perform these operations is measured and the speed of the drive is calculated.

To remind you, the Windows and Programs file-sets consist of a large number of small files whereas the other three patterns (ISO, MP3, and Install) include a few large files each.

This test produces too much data, so I will only discuss the results of the MP3, ISO and Install patterns which illustrate the most characteristic use of external HDDs. You can find the diagrams for the remaining two patterns by following the links below.

FAT32 File System

Results of the Windows and Programs patterns

There are no surprises at writing: the eSATA-connected Teac are in the lead. Next go the 250GB models with USB interface. The Fujitsu HandyDrive 300GB and the USB-connected Teac HD-15-OTC 300GB are losers. These two models are based on big, but slow disks.

Results of the Windows and Programs patterns

The eSATA-connected drives enjoy a larger advantage when reading. The 300GB models with USB interface are traditionally slow, but the gap is about 2MBps or less than 10%. This is not a big tradeoff for the extra 50 gigabytes of storage space.

Results of the Windows and Programs patterns

The firmware algorithms of the particular hard disk affect the speed of copying. It is thanks to them that the Transcend goes ahead (to remind you, this external storage is based on a Samsung hard disk whereas the others are based on Fujitsu disks) and is almost as fast as the eSATA-connected HDDs.

Results of the Windows and Programs patterns

The standings do not change much when the drives are copying files from one partition to another. The eSATA-connected Teac are in the lead, followed by the Transcend. The others have considerably lower speeds.