How to Test Your Disk Speed on Windows 11

Step 1. Open Task Manager

Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager. If you see the simple view, click More details at the bottom first. Then click the Performance tab on the left.

Step 2. Watch the Disk Activity

Click the Disk entry to see real-time read and write speeds. Copy a large file to or from the drive while watching, and you'll see how fast the disk handles a sustained transfer. The Active time graph at the top shows whether the disk is the current bottleneck. [SCREENSHOT NEEDED: Task Manager Performance tab with Disk selected, showing read/write speed graphs and active time]

Step 1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator

Press Win + S, type cmd, then click Run as administrator on the right. Click Yes when the User Account Control prompt appears.

Step 2. Run the Disk Benchmark

Type the following command and press Enter:

winsat disk -drive c

The benchmark takes about 30 seconds and reports sequential read, sequential write, and random read scores. Replace c with another drive letter to test a different disk. [SCREENSHOT NEEDED: Command Prompt showing the output of winsat disk with read and write scores]

Step 1. Open Terminal as Administrator

Right-click the Start button and pick Terminal (Admin).

Step 2. Run Get-PhysicalDisk

Type the following command and press Enter:

Get-PhysicalDisk

The output lists each drive with its model, media type (SSD or HDD), size, and health status. A drive marked Unhealthy is the most likely cause if you're seeing slow speeds. [SCREENSHOT NEEDED: PowerShell window showing Get-PhysicalDisk output with HealthStatus column visible]