CrystalDiskMark vs Parkdale

CrystalDiskMark is Windows software for benchmarking disk and storage performance. It measures sequential and random read, write and mixed workloads, with Peak, Real World and Demo measurement modes. Users can create custom test profiles, and results can be exported as UTF-16LE text with a BOM, PNG, JPEG or BMP. The download page lists Standard, Aoi and Shizuku editions; Standard is available as an installer, ZIP or source code. Listed system support spans Windows XP through Windows 11 and Windows Server 2003 through 2025, across x86, x64 and ARM64. However, the installer and x64 version do not support XP or Server 2003. The maker warns that benchmarking may shorten SSD or USB memory life and that results cannot be compared across different major versions. Results may also vary with test file size and position, fragmentation, storage controller, CPU speed and, for some SSDs, test data pattern. The free desktop edition costs nothing. A separate Microsoft Store edition costs 9.99 USD once.

Parkdale measures read and write speeds for hard disks, CD-ROM devices and network servers. Its three access modes offer different ways to run a drive test. QuickAccess checks sequential and random access with 4KB blocks and 32 concurrent threads. FileAccess reads and writes test data in a regular file through the filesystem; BlockAccess works directly with disk sectors and displays transfer rates over time. Users can compare and submit drive results on the Benchmark page. The Windows version has command-line options for the drive, file size, block size and log-file creation, and installation is available through winget and Chocolatey. Parkdale runs on Windows, macOS and Android, with the maker listing operating systems from Windows 11 through Windows 98, macOS 27 through 10.7, and Android 12 through 4.4. The free software is supported by donations. The maker says crash reporting and automatic update checks can be disabled; those functions send a unique non-personal ID and operating-system version, and IP addresses are recorded to distinguish usage countries.