Is there a simple way to find out the speed of my computer's hard drive (rpm)?

[Koto]

Is there a properties screen somewhere in Windows 98 that will show me the speed of my computer's hard drive?

I've looked at the hard drive's properties in Device Manager, but there isn't much information there.

I'm hoping there may be a way for me to get this information, without having to download diagnostic software.(?)

[smercer]

What do you hope to gain from it?
Why do you want to have faster harddrive RPM? is it for burning CDs?

[DaveSW]

try everest from lavalys http://lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en&pageid=1

it would give you your model number if nothing else, so you could get it from the manufacturer.

[PeOfEo]

You can find this information (rpms) from some diagnostic software I believe though. I will look at infoview later to see if it displays it. If not infoview (from msi) will at the very least give you the hard drive model, it is kind of like what dave posted. Why would you be against downloading software?

[Koto]

Thanks for the replies.


smercer,

One of the things I use my computer for is multi-track audio recording.
I'm thinking of getting another computer to do this, so I can use the first computer just for web design etc.
I want to make sure that any new computer I get has a hard drive that is at least as fast as the one I'm using now.
(I think it's probably 7,200rpm, but I'm not totally sure).


DaveSW, PeOfEo,

I've got nothing against using software to get this information really.
But I wouldn't want to go through the bother of downloading and installing a program if there's a simple way to find this out from Windows.
So I thought it's worth checking here first.

[PeOfEo]

You might be able to find out just by looking at the drive. On hard drives it will list the size, cylanders, heads, and other critical information. Your hard drive is most likely 8200 if it is rather new. That is a pretty common speed.

[DaveSW]

press delete when booting, enter your bios, note down the drive number.

Or right click on 'my computer' click 'properties' click device manager from somewhere in there, then try and find your hard drive.

Everest is probably easier to use.

[David Harrison]

Well, since you mentioned you might be getting a new computer, get one with one of these in:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=60962

In my opinion it's the best HDD out there. If you need more capacity then they go right up to 400Gb. The bigger ones might be a little more sluggish at finding things though, can't say I've tested that theory though.

Don't be tempted to go for a Western Digital Raptor, they spin at 10,000 rpm, cost a lot, don't have much space on them and don't live as long.

[BeachSide]

Does that place send to the US I cannot find that info anywhere on their site :confused: i want to buy that hdd I think I was hoping there would be a conversion to dollars thing somewhere

[David Harrison]

Just use an American site, like Newegg.com or um ... I don't know any more American sites. :p

Is there something wrong with your current HDD though? Is it not fast enough for what you want?

[smercer]

My recommendation is to get a RAMdrive (http://www.cenatek.com/)

That is a hardware version, but a cheaper way is to get a software version, but with this your data is volatile meaning when you turn off your computer, you loose saved data. the reason I am suggesting this is creating sound files gives the hard drives a workout and your computer slows down because of this. create your sound file on the RAM drive and when your done copy over to hard drive.

I will post a RAM drive software as attachment, I downloaded it, but have not tried it out yet. I just hope you have the RAM to use it.

My reason for wanting it was because I have 1 GB of RAM and wanted to use it for burning CDs, this way I don’t have to worry on background processes interrupting the hard drive and wont get buffer underrun.

Does that help?

[smercer]

had problem uploading attachment. try again.

[Compguy Pete]

One thing to keep in mind that there are drives that are slower and have faster benchmarks and you really do need to look at the other numbers as well. Namely Seektime, which I would take a 7ms seek time on a 5800rpm drive over a 8.5ms seek time on a 7200 rpm drive anyday.

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by lavalamp
Well, since you mentioned you might be getting a new computer, get one with one of these in:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=60962

In my opinion it's the best HDD out there. If you need more capacity then they go right up to 400Gb. The bigger ones might be a little more sluggish at finding things though, can't say I've tested that theory though.

Don't be tempted to go for a Western Digital Raptor, they spin at 10,000 rpm, cost a lot, don't have much space on them and don't live as long. yar, seagate makes some nice hdds. I have a 200gb seagate baracuta sata.

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by smercer
My recommendation is to get a RAMdrive (http://www.cenatek.com/)

That is a hardware version, but a cheaper way is to get a software version, but with this your data is volatile meaning when you turn off your computer, you loose saved data. the reason I am suggesting this is creating sound files gives the hard drives a workout and your computer slows down because of this. create your sound file on the RAM drive and when your done copy over to hard drive.

I will post a RAM drive software as attachment, I downloaded it, but have not tried it out yet. I just hope you have the RAM to use it.

My reason for wanting it was because I have 1 GB of RAM and wanted to use it for burning CDs, this way I don’t have to worry on background processes interrupting the hard drive and wont get buffer underrun.

Does that help? A hardware one would not be the cheapest way to go and using existing ram would tax your memory. What I like is the raid cards with the physicaly cache on them. That should provide a nice performance boost.

[smercer]

Originally posted by PeOfEo
A hardware one would not be the cheapest way to go and using existing ram would tax your memory. What I like is the raid cards with the physicaly cache on them. That should provide a nice performance boost.

but you still get the time lag wouldn't you?. and if he is going to spend money on something, extra ram and the RAMDrive software would make it the fastest that you could get.

if you do your shoping around you could find some great bargains. I got 2 X 512mb PC-2100 ram sticks for AU$238.00 and thats the price I could get a harddrive for in Australia (at the time I bought them).

[PeOfEo]

I still think the raid card with the onboard cache would give you a nice boost for a good price. I am really tempted to buy one actually (for my server and my pc).