Windows 11/10: How to check the health of your hard drive

The hard drive is the most important component of any computer that has reached an advanced age. The reason is that unlike processors and RAM, the HDD contains more moving parts.

There is a high chance that your data will be lost if you leave it to die before replacing it. You can monitor the health of your hard disk and transfer all data to an external drive as soon as it stops working.

We now have to ask the obvious question: What can you do to check the health and safety of your hard drive?

You can check the S.M.A.R.T. The status of your drive

If the hard drive of your computer is still in good condition, it may have already been equipped with self-monitoring technology. S.M.A.R.T. The S.M.A.R.T. system, which stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology, can provide information on the condition of your drive.

Basic data can be gathered about the SSD’s S.M.A.R.T. The built-in WMIC tool (Windows Management Instrumentation Command line) in Windows 10 or Windows 11 allows you to check your SSD’s S.M.A.R.T. status.

1. Start Command Prompt first by looking for CMD on the Start Menu.

2. Now, enter the command wmic diskdrive get model,status

3. It will show you all of the drives that have been installed and their status. This will display all the drives you have installed, along with their status OK This means that the drive functions properly Pred Fail This means that it’s about to fall apart.
4. If your computer only has one drive, you can use the wmic diskdrive status command.

WMIC tools only provide a yes/no status report. S.M.A.R.T. Although drives can transmit more data than they are capable of, you must have a better application to view it.

CrystalDisk Info This is an example of such an application. You can get a complete overview of all SMART information for both external and internal disk drives. This will help you better understand your drive’s health.

2. The HDD Manufacturers Diagnostic Tool is available

S.M.A.R.T. may not be available for all hard drive drives. It is a technology that monitors their health. Most people can track their own health using solid-state drives.

The best hard drives manufacturers are like Seagate, , Western Digital, Samsung You can use an app that allows you to monitor the storage status.

These apps The HDD can be tested for system errors or bad sectors. This will give you a clear picture of your drive’s chances of failure. If your drive doesn’t come with error monitoring, it is best to test the HDD for any potential problems.

3. Check the BIOS to verify that your HDD is working

You can use a S.M.A.R.T. if you have trouble finding the diagnostic tool for your hard drive manufacturer. You can check the BIOS to see if your drive is in good health. The BIOS on all motherboards can verify the health of each component, as well as the condition and status of the hard drive.

This interface does not interfere with any operating system application or other running applications, which prevents them from interfering in the testing results.

It is difficult to trigger it. You first need to access the BIOS. It works in different ways for different motherboards. This is usually done by pressing a specific function key. Next, locate the test.

You can do this for many BIOS versions by going to Settings > Advanced > NVME self-test. Diagnostics instead.

4. With the CHKDSK Utility

Although we’ve seen ways to inspect the HDD for potential hardware issues, that’s only one of many problems that could occur with an HDD. Other than bad sectors, the filesystem can become corrupted and cause data loss.

These issues can be detected and repaired using the Microsoft Windows chkdsk tool. This command-line utility scans your disk and corrects any logical errors. It makes corrupted sector usable again.

1. Command Prompt is required to access the CHKDSK tool. Type cmd Use the search bar in Start Menu to locate it.

2. Once the Command Prompt window appears, enter this command and hit “Enter” Enter: :

chkdsk C: /F /R /X

C represents the drive letter on the disk to be scanned. The program will perform CHKDSK, which will recover all corrupt sectors found. Check Disk’s data recovery abilities are limited. This is mostly used for repairing corrupted file systems.

5. Install Third-Party Disk Testing Tool

Third-party applications can be downloaded if you aren’t concerned about downloading them. This is often the best way to check your HDD’s health. A dedicated hard drive scanner software gives you more details about your hard disk’s health than the built-in Windows tools.

This has been discussed before CrystalDisk Info, Hard Disk Sentinel and HDDScan, It can be used to diagnose any type of drive, including SSDs and complex RAID systems. These reports are much more comprehensive than the basic Windows diagnostics. They can be used to help detect failing drives faster.

Which is the best way to check hard drive health?

Most users will need a simple S.M.A.R.T. A basic S.M.A.R.T. status check will suffice to determine if the hard drive is at risk. You can also use the status check to get more information third-party tools CrystalDisk Info and HDDScan are great options to obtain a comprehensive report.

When your HDD does not support S.M.A.R.T., things get more complicated. technology. Although a CHKDSK scanner on your hard drive can be a great idea for identifying file system problems, it is not the best way to determine if there are hardware issues.

There are two choices: you can either use BIOS to test your disk drive or the manufacturer’s hard disk scanning software. BIOS has the benefit of being compatible with all operating systems for SSDs and conventional hard drives. The best way to obtain the most precise information is to use the tool that was created specifically for that product.