1. Get hard drive info

hdparm -i /dev/sda                   (drive ID/SN)
hdharm -I /dev/sda                   (detailed)

 -t   Perform device read timings
 -T   Perform cache read timings

/dev/hda:
Timing cached reads:   1008 MB in  2.00 seconds = 502.96 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:   54 MB in  3.09 seconds =  17.46 MB/sec