DVD/CD-ROM Benchmark
The DVD/CD-ROM drive benchmark searches for a file on the disk then it reads from it 2 times (the file size is specified by the user).
You can benchmark a specified DVD or CD-ROM drive, or any other read-only drive, simply by selecting the current drive in HARDiNFO.
NOTE: For more accuracy, please set the file size for benchmark at least twice the RAM size of your computer to overload the cache memory allocated by Windows.
Many people claims that the CD-ROM benchmark shows incorrect information, BUT IT’S NOT TRUE!, lets see why:
If you have a 10x Speed CD-ROM drive and HARDiNFO PRO shows that your CD-ROM is 6x Speed, that is your CD-ROM performance!, like a 6x Speed. Many 10x Speed drives claims that they have 1500KB/s, but if HARDiNFO PRO tells you that it have 1000kb/s and you don’t believe it, try to copy a big file from your CD-ROM to a NUL file, and count with your watch how much time is taken for example to copy a 20MB file, if it takes 20 seconds, divide (20MB/20sec.=1MB), then your CD-ROM drive speed is approx. 1000kb/s or 1MB/s which equals a 6x Speed CD-ROM drive (1MB/150kb=6, which is 6X speed), so don’t believe what is written on your CD-ROM drive, the drive slows down the speed when it can’t read from a disc...: for example if you put a bad disc in drive your CD-ROM drive and the drive can’t read from it at a 10 x Speed, then it will slow down to 6X, 4X and 2X..., until it can read the information correctly, so the speed of your CD-ROM drive depends even on what CD you put in and how accurate it can read at a higher speed!, that’s why you need a benchmark program.
NOTE!: It also depends where is located the targeted file on the CD-ROM disc, if the file is located on the middle of the CD, then your CD-ROM drive will have a slower transfer rate, when it will read that file. If the file is located on the outer part of the disc, it will read it faster, so it is recommended to use a file as bigger as possible, even 500MB (for benchmark)
IMPORTANT!: Always remember that doesn’t matter the transfer speed of the CD-ROM drive bus ! (reported by many CD-ROM benchmark programs), it can be up to 33MB/sec. We created this benchmark to show you the real READ transfer speed of your drive NOT the CD-ROM bus speed.
You can copy a file to NUL, by typing in DOS prompt COPY myfilefromCD NUL
And count with your watch to see how much time it takes, then divide the filesize to the number of seconds elapsed and you will get the real speed of your drive which is equal to HARDiNFO benchmark results.
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