<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"
      type="topic" style="task"
      id="disk-benchmark">

  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="disk"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.6.2" version="0.2" date="2012-11-16" status="review"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.10" date="2013-11-03" status="candidate"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.13.92" date="2014-09-20" status="review"/>

    <credit type="author">
      <name>GNOME Documentation Project</name>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
    </credit>
    <credit type="author">
      <name>Natalia Ruz Leiva</name>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
    </credit>
   <credit type="editor">
     <name>Michael Hill</name>
     <email>[email protected]</email>
   </credit>

    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>

    <desc>Run benchmarks on your hard disk to check how fast it is.</desc>
  </info>

<title>Test the performance of your hard disk</title>

  <comment>
    <cite date="2013-11-03">Kat</cite>
    <p>This should say why a user might want to do this.</p>
    <p>We shouldn't call the emblem-system-symbolic "gear icon", but there's
    not a much better alternative.</p>
  </comment>

  <p>To test the speed of your hard disk:</p>

  <steps>
    <item>
      <p>Open <app>Disks</app> from the
      <gui xref="shell-introduction#activities">Activities</gui> overview.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <p>Choose the disk from the list in the left pane.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <p>Click the menu button and select <gui>Benchmark Disk…</gui> from the
      menu.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <p>Click <gui>Start Benchmark…</gui> and adjust the <gui>Transfer
      Rate</gui> and <gui>Access Time</gui> parameters as desired.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <p>Click <gui>Start Benchmarking…</gui> to test how fast data can be read
      from the disk. <link xref="user-admin-explain">Administrative
      privileges</link> may be required. Enter your password, or the password
      for the requested administrator account.</p>
      <note>
        <p>If <gui>Perform write-benchmark</gui> is checked, the benchmark
        will test how fast data can be read from and written to the disk. This
        will take longer to complete.</p>
      </note>
    </item>
  </steps>

  <p>When the test is finished, the results will appear on the graph. The green
  points and connecting lines indicate the samples taken; these correspond to
  the right axis, showing access time, plotted against the bottom axis,
  representing percentage time elapsed during the benchmark. The blue line
  represents read rates, while the red line represents write rates; these are
  shown as access data rates on the left axis, plotted against percentage of
  the disk traveled, from the outside to the spindle, along the bottom
  axis.</p>

  <p>Below the graph, values are displayed for minimum, maximum and average
  read and write rates, average access time and time elapsed since the last
  benchmark test.</p>

</page>