Freeware Tools: Parkdale 2.95

Parkdale is a portable tool that enables you to measure the read/write speeds of any local or network connected harddisk. The program support three different types of test. You can perform a QuickAccess test, which measures the sequential read & write access speed as well as the random access speed. Or you can run a FileAccess test which uses a normal file from your file system to measure the read/write performance. The third option is a BlockAccess test which will bypass the filesystem and read/write directly from the disk sectors.

Parkdale provides you with a sturdy and neat tool to test the performance of your hard drives primarily, while also helping you benchmark your optical drives and network connections.

Additionally, it works with your USB flash drives and informs you whether the captured speed is low or optimum.

Hardware benchmarking is not always done with bragging in mind. It is one of the best ways to quickly and easily hunt down defective hard disks, for instance. That’s where Parkdale comes into play.

Just by selecting your desired drive from the available list of the nicely done GUI you can start testing it right away. The interface is split into three sections including QuickAccess, FileAccess or BlockAccess.

The first area helps you benchmark all of your drives, select the size of the testing file alongside the block size (Windows default of 64 KB or 1 MB). Don’t be fooled by the 1 MB results because they only happen while working with big files, while Windows usually accesses small files.

You can average the two results in order to assess your hardware’s performance. One more witty aspect of this particular application is the notification you receive whenever your hardware fails to live up to its expectations, thus you may want to further investigate the problem in order to make sure you have a faulty device that you can RMA.

Testing the network connection is yet another important benchmark to undergo in case you experience slow data transfers.

The bottom line is that Parkdale can prove to be an essential tool for periodical check-ups. Of course, it can be used to brag about your newly installed hyper devices, but it serves its purpose with flying colours.