- Open a terminal or go to a command line on your Linux system. As root, run the command "fdisk -l." This should bring up a list of devices with names like "/dev/hda1" or "/dev/hdb1." The change in letter at the end indicates a different physical disk, while the numbers are partitions on that drive. You will need this information to choose which hard drive to test.
- Linux comes with the tool "hdparm". This tool has many options, some of which may damage your system. Do not run "hdparm" without knowing what the options will do. The manual for "hdparm" can be accessed by typing "man hdparm" at the command line. For a speed test, run as root the command "hd parm -tT <harddrive path>." For example, to test the drive speed on the "/dev/hda" drive, use the command "hd parm -tT /dev/hda." Several messages will display. When the process completes you will be returned to the command line and can read the results.
- After running "hd parm -tT," two lines of data will output to the command line. The first says, "Timing cached reads" and the other "Timing buffered disk reads," followed by data rates in megabytes per second. The buffered disk read is the data transfer rate directly from the disk to memory. The timing cached read is the data transfer rate from a memory buffer without reading the hard drive. According to the manual page for "hdparm" "this measurement is essentially an indication of the throughput of the processor, cache and memory of the system under test."
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