Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB

From a storage standpoint, two of the most common scenarios for almost all computer users include copying a file from one place to another, and also archiving a folder for storage (as in backup, or portability). We tackle both of these here on this page. For our real-world transfers, we take a 4GB file and also a 4GB folder, one at a time, and copy it from one place to another on the same drive. Our 4GB folder includes 4,800 files, which we consider to be a realistic number for a media folder of that density. Included inside are numerous documents, music, photos and other miscellaneous files.

For our archiving test, we are using the excellent open-sourced 7-Zip, as it’s lightweight, feature-rich, and fast. Our test consists of us taking the same 4GB folder as mentioned above, and archiving it to a .7z format using the program’s default settings.

Real-World File Transfer

7-Zip Archiving

Another round of testing, and another less-than-ideal performance. In the 4GB file copying tests, the Caviar Black was left in the dust, and although it did manage to steal 4th place in the 7-Zip archiving contest, it still couldn’t out-perform the slower-running Barracuda LP.