Now the drives will be reading the same file-sets.

The two drives from Western Digital are again the fastest when working with the Install pattern. Seagate’s ST3750640AS and ST3500630AS are in third and fourth positions, which is somewhat alarming considering that they boasted the highest sequential read speed in the previous benchmarks. Well, reading small files is not exactly like sequential reading. Let’s see how the drives read large files of the ISO pattern.

Here, everything is as it should be. High data density does the trick.

The two new Barracuda 7200.10 enjoy a considerable lead over their opponents. What’s funny, the remaining drives from Seagate are at the bottom of the diagram.

Reading MP3-like files proves that high data density does not necessarily guarantee a success at reading all types of files. Seagate’s drives, except for the 750GB model, are at the bottom of the diagram. And the ST3750640AS could only surpass the two drives from Hitachi. The pair of drives from WD are the leaders and are followed by the Maxtor quartet.

Now let’s see what we have at reading small files.

The WD drives take the leading position again, the WD5000YS model having a rather big advantage. The Maxtor 7H500R0 has good results, too. Its position is always in the top part of the diagram. Seagate’s ST3750640AS and ST3500630AS have restored their reputation to some extent.