06. [20p] CHKDSK & CrystalDiskMark
For this task we want to see and estimate the health and speed of our storage. This can vary considerably and needs to be inspected regularly to see if we need to replace our HDD/SSD.
CHKDSK Health Checks
CHKDSK is a standard tool inside Windows that allows us to get basic information about our disks. It tells us how much memory we have, how much is free, how much we used. It also tells us if the disk has bad sectors, which can be a sign of a failing HDD/SSD.
After running you should see something similar to the image below.
- Open CMD as Administrator
- Run CHKDSK
- Discuss with your assistant if the program detected Bad Sectors
CHKDSK can also try to fix bad sectors on start. Bad sectors appear due to external alteration of the storage medium. In order to try fixing bad sectors you can use /f, but this requires a restart so do it on your free time.
CrystalDiskMark Benchmarking
CrystalDiskMark is a simple, yet very efficient tool for testing how fast our HDD/SSD actually is. It features several testing suites, but, for example purposes, we will use only the default one. We should use this tool at least once every 1-2 years to see if there is any significant slowdown in our system. You can also use this tool to check if the Second-hand HDD you bought for 2$ actually works. ;)
Press “All” to start running the tests.
After running you should see something similar to the image below.
Explain what each test benchmarked and why the values differ by answering the next questions.
- Why are Sequential Tests faster than Random Tests?
- How does the Block Size influence speed?
- When do Worker Queues/Threads influence speed?
- What is a real-life sequential task? What is a real-life random task?
- When do we know we should replace our SSD/HDD?
- Would defragmenting our HDD help with Random Tests?
