External drives · Setting up your drive
How does the drive speed test in Storage Studio work?
Short answer: Run benchmark briefly writes a test file to the drive, reads it back and deletes it — about 5–10 seconds — then shows read and write speeds with a verdict. Your own files aren't touched.
Click Run benchmark in Choose Drive and Storage Studio briefly writes a test file to the drive, reads it back, then deletes it. It takes about 5–10 seconds and shows two bars — Read and Write — coloured green, orange or red, with a combined verdict underneath.
The test only touches its own temporary file; nothing of yours is read, changed or removed. It needs a little free space on the drive to run. Transfer Drive and Backup Drive run the same quick check on the destination before copying.