Abstract: A method for measuring mass storage system performance in which the mass storage system has a plurality of disk drive storage elements controlled by a disk drive controller, the controller typically having a cache memory, and the controller receiving commands and data from and returning at least data to a plurality of host computers, provides the flexibility of issuing commands to the controller in a variety of different configurations from a plurality of hosts in a time synchronized and organized fashion. Some significant data reduction techniques control and organize the data for later analysis according to the invention. Effective presentation of collected data can be effected using a novel trends analysis presentation approach.