How to check hard drive health on Windows

The problem with hard drives is that they are not very durable, with most reports pegging the average lifespan of a hard drive at just 3 – 5 years. So, users should take the time to check the health of their hard drives from time to time.

On Windows computers, there are three simple ways to do this: using the built-in SMART tool, the drive manufacturer's tool, or a third-party utility. These methods provide different levels of detail, so not all of them are equally useful.

Built-in SMART status check

SMART is a built-in feature on most modern hard drives (HDDs and SSDs) that can monitor the properties of the disk and warn the user in case it is about to fail. This allows the user to quickly back up, save their data while it is still possible, and eventually replace the drive.

Command Prompt can return simple results

While users can get an instant status report on each hard drive from Command Prompt, it outputs binary results (OK or Pred Fail) which makes it less than comprehensive. However, it can confirm a user’s suspicions if they are experiencing access issues, file corruption, and slow read times on their hard drives.

To know the health status of all hard drives at once, type cmd in the Windows search bar and press Enter . In the Command Prompt window, type wmic diskdrive get model,status and press Enter.

Users will see either OK or Pred Fail next to each drive. OK means everything is fine, while Pred Fail stands for “predictive failure,” meaning Windows suspects the drive may fail soon. However, the exact timing of when that will happen is anyone’s guess, so users should start backing up important data and looking for a replacement hard drive.

Tools from hard drive manufacturers

The hard drive manufacturer most likely has a hard drive monitoring utility that users can download when they need to check the health of their hard drive. Most of these tools work with both HDDs and SSDs, so users can see the full spectrum of information in a single tool.

Drive monitoring tools from different manufacturers have different interfaces.

Seagate has SeaTools, WD has Western Digital Dashboard, Adata has Adata SSD Toolbox, and Samsung has Samsung Magician. Users simply download the appropriate application for their version of Windows and use the SMART functionality built into the program. The advantage of using this method over the built-in Windows tool is that it provides more detail than a simple command line result.

Additionally, these tools also support whatever specific technology the hard drive is using. Each tool will also tell the user the drive temperature, free space, remaining life, and more. For hard drives in particular, the user may not be able to see complete information, such as remaining life, but the tools will still display statuses such as “Good,” “Caution,” etc., or other statuses, depending on the state of the hard drive.

Third Party Utilities

Using third-party utilities is also convenient. For example, CrystalDiskInfo is popular because it provides the simplest, cleanest, and lightest user interface without sacrificing any important features. Users just need to download the tool, launch it, and the most important information will be displayed on the first screen the user sees.

CrystalDiskInfo offers a simple interface that is popular with many users.

Users can toggle between each drive at the top and see health status, temperature, total reads, total writes, and more. Here, the tool will also display “Good” or “Caution” for the user’s hard drive, but not an estimated lifespan in percent (as it does for SSDs). This is because unlike NAND flash writes on SSDs, hard drives don’t have parameters that can be precisely monitored, making it impossible to give an estimate.