If you need to create a dummy test file, you might have been wondering how to go about doing so. Or maybe you are wondering why you would even want to create a dummy test file on your PC.
Creating dummy files on your PC can serve several purposes, such as testing software, simulating storage usage, benchmarking performance, or practicing file operations. These files are often used by IT professionals for troubleshooting, training, or scripting automation. For example, dummy files can help test file transfer speeds, disk quotas, encryption methods, or backup procedures without using real data. In this article, we will be showing you 2 ways to create dummy test files on your PC for free.
Method 1 – Create Dummy Files Using Fsutil
**Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
The first method we will be using to create a dummy test file involves using the Windows fsutil command. The fsutil command is a powerful command-line utility used for managing and troubleshooting file systems, volumes, and disk-related tasks.
To create a dummy file using fsutil, you will need to open a command prompt and type in a specific command. If you look at the sample command below, you can see that the main part of the command is fsutil file createnew. After that, you need to put the path to where you want the file to be created as well as the file name itself (1GB Test File). You should also use quotes if you have any spaces in the path or file name. The last part of the command is the size of the file you want to create in bytes (1073741824).
fsutil file createnew “c:\users\todds\desktop\1GB Test File” 1073741824
The list below can be used as a cheat sheet to help you create the exact file size that you need.
1 MB = 1048576 bytes
100 MB = 104857600 bytes
1 GB = 1073741824 bytes
10 GB = 10737418240 bytes
100 GB =107374182400 bytes
1 TB = 1099511627776 bytes
10 TB =10995116277760 bytes
Once you type in the command and press enter, you should be informed that your dummy test file has been created.
If you were to then look at the properties of the file, its size should match what you entered for the command.
If you want to add a file extension to your file name, you can do so as well by adding it to the command. The command below will create a 1MB text file.
fsutil file createnew “c:\users\todds\desktop\1MB Text File.txt” 1048576
When creating text files, be sure not to make them too large otherwise Notepad will freeze up when trying to open them. As you can see in the image below, even though the file is 1MB, there is still nothing in it even though it shows as having 1,048,576 characters. Empty Notepad files may still show that they contain multiple characters because of the file encoding used when saving the file.
Method 2 – Create Dummy Files Using a Free App
The next method we will be using to create a dummy test file involves using a free third party app called Dummy File Generator that can be downloaded here. You can use the installable version of the app or the standalone portable version.
Once you have the app open, you can choose the destination folder at the top and then choose one of the default file sizes (1MB, 10MB, 100Mb and 1GB). You can also type in your own custom size in bytes if you do not want to use one of the defaults.
The app will use 0’s to fill the file unless you change the setting in the Char box. You can also use the Lines option to add actual text to your file. You can also create multiple files each with their own unique name by placing the file name on a separate line. You can add the .txt file extension if you want to create text files, otherwise you can change it to something else or remove the file extension altogether.
Once you have everything configured, click on the Generate button to have your dummy files created. We will create two 10MB dummy files called Dummy1.txt and Dummy2.txt.
If we were to open one of these files, we would see that it has been filled with 0’s.
Now we will change the setting from Char to Lines and add the words Random Data to our file.
Now when we open the dummy file, we see the words Random Data throughout the file.
As you can see, it’s not too difficult to create dummy test files on your PC if you use the right command line tool or the right third party application.
For additional training resources, check out our online IT training courses.
Check out our extensive IT book series.
