How to Check SSD or Hard Drive Health in Windows 11

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PC Technician
Windows 11Data RecoveryStorageSecurity

The Problem

Drives rarely die without warning. SMART data logs reallocated sectors, wear on SSDs, and temperature spikes long before Windows refuses to boot. Checking health takes five minutes; guessing after a click of death costs everything on the disk.

Already slow but still boots? See fix slow SSD speeds for TRIM and drivers. C: full? Free disk space first—low space is not the same as a dying drive.

What SMART Tells You (Plain English)

| Status | Meaning | |--------|---------| | Good | No critical flags right now—still back up. | | Caution | One or more thresholds tripped—clone data soon. | | Bad | Stop writing to the drive; replace and recover. |

SSD Percent Used (wear) at 90%+ on a system drive? Plan a replacement even if speed feels fine.

The Fix: Step-by-Step

Step 1: Built-In Check (Quick, Limited)

  1. Open File Explorer → right-click C: (or the drive) → Properties.
  2. Tools tab → Check under Error checking.
  3. Let it finish. This catches filesystem errors, not every hardware failure—do not treat "OK" here as a full bill of health.

Step 2: CrystalDiskInfo (What Shops Use)

  1. Download CrystalDiskInfo from the official developer site only—avoid bundled installers from download portals.
  2. Run it → read the top line: Good, Caution, or Bad.
  3. Note Reallocated Sectors, Current Pending Sector Count, Uncorrectable Sector Count on HDDs.
  4. On NVMe: Percentage Used, Available Spare, Critical Warning—any Critical Warning: Yes means stop using the drive for saves.

Leave it open while you copy files—if temperature climbs past 55–60 °C idle or 70+ °C under light use on NVMe, fix airflow.

Step 3: Vendor Tools for Firmware and Deep Tests

  • Samsung Magician, WD Dashboard, Crucial Storage Executive, Kingston SSD Manager—match the brand on the label.
  • Run short self-test first; extended only on a backup power supply (laptop plugged in). A test that hangs or errors out is a failed drive.

Step 4: PowerShell SMART Peek (No Extra Install)

Admin Terminal:

Get-PhysicalDisk | Select FriendlyName, HealthStatus, OperationalStatus

HealthStatus should be Healthy. Warning or Unhealthy matches what CrystalDiskInfo would scream about.

Step 5: When Health Is Caution or Bad

  1. Do not run chkdsk repair loops on a dying disk—you can make recovery harder.
  2. Clone to a new SSD with Macrium Reflect Free, vendor clone tool, or copy files manually to an external drive.
  3. Replace the drive, then reinstall or restore from image.

Partitions RAW or files missing? Power off, attach the old drive as a secondary disk on another PC, and scan with Data Recovery Pro before the controller quits entirely.

Step 6: Set a Reminder

Check system drives every few months on machines that matter. Laptops that get dropped deserve a look after any hard bump—even SSDs fail from controller damage, not just wear.

HDD vs SSD: Different Failure Vibes

  • HDD: clicking, long pauses, rising Reallocated Sectors—classic mechanical death.
  • SSD: sudden "disk not accessible," Percent Used maxed, or write speeds falling off a cliff in benchmarks.

Either way: backup first, argue about warranty second.