Storage Device Block Driver Benchmark Test Operation
The Storage Device Block Driver Benchmark Test executes the tux –o –d rw_all command line on default execution.
Warning Prior to running this test, be aware that all information on the storage device is destroyed. The test writes to and reads from every sector on the storage device without preserving the contents of the storage device. The test tests each PC Card that is inserted in the system, assigning one thread to each card. Microsoft recommends that you back up data on all cards and disks that are attached to the tested device before running the test.
This test may take a long time to complete when you test a storage device with large data capacity because the test reads from and writes to each sector multiple times. Microsoft recommends that you run this test on a storage device with a data capacity of 64 MB or less.
The Storage Device Block Driver Benchmark Test communicates directly with the device drivers. The device drivers are in a layer that is below the file system layer and the file allocation table (FAT) layer. If you have problems with the file system, you may be able to isolate the problem to a specific layer.
The test cases for the Storage Device Block Driver Benchmark Test differ only by the number of sectors that are read or written during each I/O burst. The more sectors you read from or write to at one time, the faster per sector the test runs, because the overhead in running the test is distributed across a larger number of sectors. None of these test cases stress the device driver, so it is safe to choose any test case. You may attribute the failure of a test case to defective hardware. For more information about the test cases for this test, see Storage Device Block Driver Benchmark Test Cases.
The test starts by displaying basic information about the storage device. This information contains the name of the device, the handle of the device, the number of sectors on the device, and the number of bytes per sector. The test does not give information about cylinders, heads, sectors, and flags, because this information is not relevant to the Storage Device Block Driver Benchmark Test.
If the device driver does not return an error, the test then shows how many sectors it writes to and how long, in milliseconds, the operation takes to complete. A message indicates that the test is attempting to read from those sectors. If the device driver does not return an error, the test attempts to verify that the data read is correct.
If this pattern of successfully writing to and reading from sectors continues to the end of the storage device, the test outputs a report that shows access times, and then returns a passing value to Tux.exe. If the test passes, you can assume that the driver and the storage device are working properly.
Note In running the test, anticipate that in certain situations, timing issues may arise. For example, a linear flash card requires more time to complete a write operation than other storage devices.
See Also
Storage Device Block Driver Benchmark Test
Last updated on Friday, October 08, 2004
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