Why doesn’t my network drive appear?
If you run CrystalDiskMark with administrator rights, network drives are not shown. To benchmark a network drive, run it as a standard user (when UAC asks, choose No so it runs without admin rights).
Frequently Asked Questions
Short answers to the most common questions about CrystalDiskMark. For step-by-step fixes, see Troubleshooting; for how to run a test, see the Guide.
Running tests & drives
Why do my results differ from other benchmark software?
Results can differ because:
- Some SSDs behave differently with random vs 0-fill test data. CrystalDiskMark lets you choose; other tools may always use 0-fill.
- Results depend on test file size, file position, fragmentation, and the controller (IDE/SATA/RAID/SCSI/NVMe) and CPU speed.
The benchmark test failed. What should I do?
Failure is often due to insufficient rights to create the test file on the drive. Run CrystalDiskMark with administrative privileges (right-click → Run as administrator) and try again.
Results & units
What does MB/s mean?
In CrystalDiskMark, MB/s means 1,000,000 bytes per second (decimal), not 1024×1024. Same for KB and GB in the UI.
Are benchmark results compatible between versions?
Results are not comparable between different major versions (e.g. 7.x vs 8.x). Within the same major version (e.g. 8.0.0–8.0.6), results are compatible.
Can CrystalDiskMark damage my SSD or USB drive?
Benchmarking writes a lot of data and can shorten the life of SSDs and USB flash drives. Use sparingly; the software is provided as-is.
More solutions: Troubleshooting · Guide