Bonnie++ is a benchmark suite that is aimed at performing a number of simple tests of hard drive and file system performance. Then you can decide which test is important and decide how to compare different systems after running it. There are no plans to ever have it produce a single number, because the author thinks that a single number can be useful when comparing such things. The main program tests database type access to a single file (or a set of files if you wish to test more than 1G of storage), and it tests creation, reading, and deleting of small files which can simulate the usage of programs such as Squid, INN, or Maildir format email. The ZCAV program which the author initially released as a separate package tests the performance of different zones of a hard drive. It does not write any data (so you can use it on full file systems). It can show why comparing the speed of Windows at the start of a hard drive to Linux at the end of the hard drive (typical dual-boot scenario) isn't a valid comparison. Bonnie++ was based on the code for Bonnie by Tim Bray.