Best Ways for SSD and HDD Disk Health Check in Windows PC

Is your computer making unusual noises (like grinding, clicking, or loud humming), showing frequent Blue Screen of Death errors, or system crashes? Moreover, are you experiencing slow system boot times or file access, corrupted files or folders, disappearing files or folders, sudden PC overheating, frequent bad sectors, or disk errors? Then, it is best to perform a comprehensive disk health check. 

An SSD or hard disk health check is a significant step you can take to prevent all these issues, which may be responsible for data loss, degraded system speed and responsiveness, short drive lifespan, loss of data, and data corruption. 

Hence, this article guides you through the best ways to check hard disk health and the health of your SSD to help you prevent data loss, maintain system performance, extend drive lifespan, avoid premature drive replacements or expensive data recovery services, and ensure data integrity. Let us dive right into them without wasting your precious time. 

How to Check Disk Health: The Best Ways

The following sections explain the most suitable methods you can follow to check SSD and HDD health on your computer. 

Methods to Check Hard Disk Health

Method 1: Use CHKDSK (Check Disk Utility)

CHDSK or Check Disk Utility scans your hard disk and creates a report, or scans your disk to fix bad sectors and file errors. Below is how to use this utility to check hard disk health on Windows. 

• First, call Windows search using the Win+S key combination.

• Next, type Command Prompt or cmd in the on-screen search box, right-click the first result, and choose Run as administrator from the available options.

• Once the Command Prompt appears, type chkdsk E: /r in the command line (make sure to replace E: with your drive letter).

• Next, press Enter and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the disk health check.

• Lastly, restart your computer after the HDD health check is complete.

Method 2: Check Hard Disk Health Using Disk Management

Disk Management is a Windows disk space analyzer function that gives you information about all the hard drives connected to the server. Moreover, it helps you determine your HDD health. Below is the step-by-step way to use it.

• First, use the Win+R key combination to access the Run tool.

• Next, type diskmgmt.msc in the on-screen Run box and press Enter.

• Once the Disk Management console appears on the screen, look for drives showing as Unallocated or Not Initialized or drives marked with a red-colored X.

• You can now right-click each drive and choose Properties to check hard disk health.

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Method 3: Perform a SMART Status Check for HDD Health

All modern drives come equipped with SMART technology (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology). It is an automatic hard drive monitoring and SSD failure detection system that alerts you to issues it detects with your drives. You can follow these steps to check HDD health using the SMART tool. 

• First, open Command Prompt as an administrator by searching for it using Windows search.

• In the Command Prompt window, type wmic diskdrive get status,model, and press Enter.

• You can now see the model and status of all drives. The healthy drives show OK, while the unhealthy ones do not display OK.

Note: If you wish to see the detailed hard disk health check report, you can type wmic /namespace:\\root\wmi path MSStorageDriver_ATAPISmartData in Command Prompt and press Enter to view the detailed attributes for all your drives. 

Method 4: Use Windows Error Checking Utility for Disk Health Check

Windows also boasts a built-in error-checking tool to perform a disk health check. Below is the complete process to use it. 

• In the first step, use the key combination Win+S to access Windows search.

• Next, type File Explorer in the search box and select it from the on-screen results.

• Once the File Explorer window appears, right-click on the drive for which you want to check the hard disk health.

• In this step, choose Properties from the available menu and navigate to the Tools tab.

• You can now choose Check from the error checking section and follow the on-screen directions.

• Lastly, allow Windows to scan and repair the drive.

Method 5: Check Disk Health Using PowerShell on Windows

Windows PowerShell allows a more powerful SMART status check for your HDD health. Below is how to use it. 

• First, use the combination of the Win and S keys to open Windows search.

• Next, type PowerShell in the search box, right-click the first search result, and select Run as administrator from the on-screen menu.

• Once the PowerShell window appears, type or copy-paste the command Get-WmiObject -namespace root\wmi -class MSStorageDriver_FailurePredictStatus | Select-Object InstanceName, PredictFailure, Reason, and press Enter.

• You can now see the drives that may fail soon.

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Methods to Perform an SSD Health Check

Method 1: Use the Defragment & Optimize Drive Utility to Check SSD Health

Windows boasts a Defragment & Optimize Drive tool that allows you to check your SSD disk health by following the steps below. 

• First, access Windows search using the Win+S key combination.

• Next, type Defragment & Optimize Drive in the search box and select it from the results.

• Once the Defragment & Optimize Drive tool appears, you can view the current status column for your SSD.

• If the SSD status is OK, your disk health is considered good. However, if it is not OK, you can click the Optimize (not defragment) button to fix the issue.

Method 2: Check Disk Health Using Windows Settings

Windows settings offer an option to perform an SSD health check. It helps you find details such as the available SSD space, temperature, etc., through these steps. 

• First, use the Win+I key combination to access the Windows settings panel.

• Next, choose System from the available settings.

• In this step, select Storage from the available system settings.

• You can now navigate to the Advanced storage settings and select Disk & volumes.

• This step requires you to choose your SSD and click the Properties option.

• You can now view all your SSD details to check whether or not it is in good shape.

Method 3: Use Command Prompt for SSD Health Check

Another way to perform an SSD disk health check is through the Command Prompt. Below is how to check SSD health in this way. 

• First, search for an open Command Prompt as an administrator.

• Once the Command Prompt window opens, type the wmic diskdrive get status command and press Enter.

• You can now view the disk health check results in the status column.

Method 4: Perform Disk Health Check Using Windows PowerShell

Windows PowerShell lets you check the SSD disk health by showing you the disk status, statistics of use, and SSD warning signs. Below is how to use Windows PowerShell to perform an SSD disk health check. 

• First, right-click the Start button on your taskbar and select Windows PowerShell (Admin) from the on-screen menu.

• Once the PowerShell window opens, type the command SSD: Get-PhysicalDisk and press Enter to view important information about your SSD.

• If you wish to see the complete SSD health check report, with details like temperature, etc., type the command Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter | Format-List and press Enter.

• If you only want specific details about your SSD, like read errors and wear, type the command Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter | Select ReadErrorsTotal, Wear, and press Enter.

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HDD and SSD Disk Health Check: The Conclusion

That is all for how to perform an HDD and SSD disk health check. You can follow any method you are most comfortable with from the guide above to check the health of your disk to catch potential issues early, prevent data loss, and ensure your system functions smoothly. However, if you have any related doubts, questions, or concerns, you can leave a comment for experts to help you in whichever way possible.