Benchmarking a CD or DVD drive makes only sense if you can compare the results. This can be useful if you can test several CD or DVD writers before making a decision which to build into the computer or if you want to know how your drive compares to similar drives. If the benchmarking process does not throw up an error or stops midway you can almost be sure that the drive is not damaged mechanically.

The disc quality test is more interesting. It tests the quality of a created disc displaying a quality score at the end. A score above 80 is acceptable and everything above 90 is very good. I usually analyse the disc using the Scandisc function if the quality score lies beneath 80. This is also a great way to test burned media from time to time to make sure it does not contain any bad or unreadable sectors.

Nero Disc Speed comes in handy if you suspect that your DVD or CD drive is not working correctly or if you want to check the quality of the burned discs.