If you bought an HDD in the last couple of years, some chances that your HDD's performance is crippled by the Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM) feature. AAM is a method for reducing acoustic emanations (noise reduction) and is popular especially among Western Digital HDDs. You can use software like
AIDA64 or
SiSoftware Sandra to determine if your HDD uses AAM. Anyhow, AAM reduces performance in exchange for acoustics. Now if you are an end-user/enthusiast and would like to disable AAM to boost your HDD's performance, just follow the short guide below (at your own risk - of course).
1. Download the latest version of
CrystalDiskInfo.
2. Extract and run DiskInfo.exe.
3. Navigate to: Function > Advanced Feature > AAM/APM Control.
4. Select HDD and press on the disable button.
