Are there any hard drive tests that the average computer person can understand?
For the average every day user the best tests are the ones that run a script of common programs and tasks, time them, and print out a score based on the amount of time it took to complete the tasks. The best and fairest two we believe are from Ziff Davis (PC Magazine). Winbench 99 and SpeedRate are both downloadable from their website and you may access them from here. Both tests measure Windows 95 and 98s ability to take data from the hard drive and put it to use. The main difference between them is Winbench 99 is much bigger and measures more criteria, while SpeedRate is relatively small and easily downloadable and will give you results within seconds.
