hard disk test file size

[shadow]

Dear Passmark,

According to documentation, the BIT hard disk test writes test files to the DUT until about 94% of the disk space is used. The the test then erases the test files and starts over.

The file size can vary from about 0.1% to 18% (this is from my experimentation) of the available disk space. How does the file size affect the test?

Will I get more errors with a large (15%) file size than with the default (1%) one?

How does the file size affect the 'operations' count?

Is a 'cycle' the process of reaching 94% of disk space and starting over?

Thank you for answering these questions.


-shadow

[Tim (PassMark)]

The disk test file size is set in the test preferences as a % of the total disk size (from 0.1 to 15%).

File size could affect the type of errors (eg creating lots of small files has a greater change of failing on a file create/open) but not necessarily the amount of errors. Smaller files will make it easier to fill more of the hard disk and achieve better coverage of the available space (but will be slightly slower than using larger files).

The operations count is the number of bytes written and read during the test.

A disk test cycle is defined to be writing 1 test file, and reading/verifying the data.

There is more information about the disk test in the help file in the "Disk test suite" (under "Test descriptions") and the "Disk" (under "Selecting Test Preferences") sections of the help file.