Defragmentation

Next goes our homemade test of defragmentation speed. We created a very defragmented file system on a 32GB partition of a hard disk by loading it with music, video, games and applications. Then we saved a per-sector copy of the disk and now copy it to the HDD we want to test. The tested HDD is connected to the mainboard’s SATA controller whose operation mode (AHCI/Standard IDE) is controlled from the mainboard’s BIOS. Next we run a script that evokes the console version of the Perfect Disk 8.0 defragmenter and marks the time of the beginning and end of the defragmentation process. Thus, each drive is tested twice – with AHCI support turned on and off on the controller. You can refer to this article for details about this test.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the test data for the two 2.5-inch drives with 100GB platters (Seagate Momentus 7200.2 and Hitachi 7K200).

Judging by the results, the defragmentation speed depends on both response time and sequential speed of the drive. As a result, the WD Scorpio Black is close to the leading WD Caviar Blue. The WD Scorpion Blue is somewhat slower than the leaders. Seagate’s team are noticeably worse than Western Digital’s, the new Seagate Momentus 7200.3 being the slowest of all in this test.