Solid-state drives (SSDs) are fast and reliable, but they don’t last forever. Monitoring SSD health in Windows 10 and Windows 11 helps you avoid sudden failures and unexpected data loss.
With the right tools, checking your SSD’s condition takes just minutes. In this guide, you’ll learn simple built-in methods and trusted utilities to keep your drive performing at its best.
What Is SSD Health and Why It Matters
SSD health refers to the overall condition of your solid-state drive based on factors like wear level, remaining lifespan, error rates, and performance stability. Unlike traditional hard drives, SSDs don’t have moving parts, but they rely on flash memory cells that wear out gradually with use. Every time data is written or erased, these cells degrade slightly, making health monitoring essential over time.
Learning how to gauge SSD health helps you anticipate failures before they occur. Nearly all recent SSDs rely on SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) data to monitor internal statistics such as total bytes written, re-allocated sectors, or available spare blocks. These signals are given way before a drive becomes unreadable.
Keeping an eye on SSD health is vitally important if you’re using your computer for work, gaming, or storing important files. A dying SSD can manifest trouble such as slow boot times, app crashing, corrupted files or even freezes. In an unmonitored state, these symptoms are typically overlooked until the drive quits functioning all together.
Scheduling regular health checks also allows for proactive planning of upgrades. This way, if the health of your SSD drops below acceptable levels, you can archive data and replace the drive before it becomes dangerous. In other words, SSD health monitoring is not mere technical housekeeping, it’s a crucial part of safeguarding your data and keeping your gaming pc running smoothly.
How Long Do SSDs Last? (SSD Lifespan)
SSDs wear out in a way that traditional hard drives don’t. Unlike the mechanical breakdown of a traditional drive, SSDs just wear out as their flash memory cells reach write limits. Each memory cell has a limited number of program/erase cycles that it can withstand before ceasing to reliably hold a charge.
SSD longevity is rated by manufacturers in terabytes written (TBW) or drive writes per day (DWPD). TBW is used to determine how much data you can write to your drive during its life, whereas DWPD describes the total amount of times the whole drive could be rewritten in a single day under warranty. A higher number generally indicates an SSD that will last longer.
Wear leveling algorithms are utilised in current SSDs to balance the writes across memory cells. This prevents certain cells from degrading too quickly and ensures a much longer drive life. Even under heavy daily usage, most consumer SSDs last many years before you have to worry about their health.
But such wear can be accelerated through activities that include large file transfers, heavy workloads, inadequate cooling and unexpected power loss. That’s why it’s important to track SSD health in Windows 10 and Windows 11 so that you can keep an eye on the wear progression and intervene before anything bad happens to performance or reliability.
Signs Your SSD May Be Failing
SSDs typically provide some subtle warning before failing entirely. Knowing these early warning signs can help you back up your data and replace the drive before it’s too late.
Among the biggest signposts is sluggish performance. If your machine starts taking much longer to boot, applications open at a snail’s pace, or even just simple file transfers seem to take forever, then it is possible that your SSD has reached the end of its life. These slowdowns are typically due to the drive struggling to deal with failed memory cells.
You may also find that your computer freezes up when running everyday tasks, even if you have the best processors. That means you have a problem with the SSD itself.
You may also encounter SMART warnings or disk errors in Windows or third-party applications. Messages indicating “drive failure predicted” or repeated prompts to scan and fix the disk should not be ignored.
Finally read-only mode is a strong hint. Some SSDs become read-only at catastrophic health to protect stored data. Although it does keep your files safe for now, the the drive needs to be replaced right away.
If you notice any of these signs, it’s important to check the health of your SSD immediately. The sooner the threat is identified, the more likely you will be able to save your information, while also minimizing unexpected downtime.
How to Check SSD Health in Windows Built-In Tools
Windows 10 and Windows 11 have basic features built-in that allow you to check your SSD’s health without the need for any additional software. Though these methods don’t cover all of the technical details, they are fast, reliable and useful for identifying early issues.
Check If Your SSD Is Working Properly(with Windows)
With Windows 11, Microsoft introduced a rudimentary SSD health indicator within storage settings.
- Open Settings
- Go to System → Storage
- Click Advanced storage settings
- Select Disks & volumes
- Select your SSD then click on Properties
In this case, Windows could display a warning to let you know the “Drive health is OK,” or urge you to back up your data if it detects problems. This is a small feature, yet useful to quickly check status.
Use Command Prompt (SMART Status Check)
Windows can read simple SMART data from a Command Prompt.
- Press Windows + X and choose either Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows Terminal.
- Enter the following command and hit Return:
- wmic diskdrive get status
If “OK” is returned, then Windows has yet to identify a major SMART problem. If you see “Pred Fail” your drive is failing and needs help now.
Use the Error Checking Tool To Check For Errors on SSD
In Windows you also have a disk error scan tool:
- Open File Explorer.
- Right-click your SSD and select Properties.
- Go to the Tools tab.
- Click Check under Error checking.
This utility searches for file system errors and bad sectors. It can’t display wear percentage, however it is able to detect corruption associated with failing storage.
Limitations of Built-In Tools
Tools on Windows just show some of the health factors. They don’t show you granular metrics like remaining lifespan, proportion of wear or total bytes written. If you want to look deeper, third-party utilities are a much better bet.
How To Check The Health Of Your SUV In Windows With PowerShell
PowerShell gives you a much more in depth view of the health of your SSD than basic Windows settings. It’s drawing data in real time directly from the system’s storage management layer, meaning Windows can actually determine whether a drive is running well or is exhibiting warning signs.
PowerShell Windows can show you the overall health of your SSD (if it is ok, has warnings or critical problems) . This is a great solution especially if you want more than just basic error checks, but still an integrated Windows solution.
You can use PowerShell on Windows 10, and now on Windows 11 without installing any extra software. This is particularly useful when you’re dealing with multiple drives and Windows can quickly give you a high-level view of what’s going on.
However, PowerShell has its limitations. Not all SSDs will return detailed wear-out information through Windows, and not all drives will show the same mistake or generic health information.
Checking SSD Health Using Manufacturer Software
Several manufacturers directly provide their own software to check the health of their drives. For the most accurate and comprehensive information you can get, these utilities will talk directly to your SSD’s firmware, allowing you to take a close look at its inner workings.
Depending on the manufacturer’s software, you can generally find all those things like a percentage that represents device health as well as an estimated remaining life percentage, which are very important to see how healthy your drive is. Many tools also inform about when your SSD is nearing its lifetime write limits, as well as any internal errors that may impact reliability.
A big plus when using official SSD software: you usually do get firmware updates. Firmware updates can improve the overall stability and performance of products, while also fixing bugs. Certain tools may also offer performance tuning, secure erase and storage management capabilities.
The main drawback is compatibility. Tools from manufacturers generally only work with their SSD-brand brothers. If you have a system with multiple SSDs from different makers, you might still need to install more than one utility, or alternatively use a universal third-party tool.
That said, manufacturer software is still one of the best options to check SSD health in both Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Third-Party Software for SSD Health Monitoring
While playing games on your gaming pc, you might think that sluggish performance is due to malfunctioning Graphics card, but that might be due to your Unhealthy SSD. If you’re in need of more detailed insights or prefer using a single solution for all your drives from various manufacturers, then third-party SSD monitoring tools are superb alternatives. These utilities give you an overview of the health, performance, and usage of your SSD but do so without manufacturer-specific software.
Decent software, for example, utilising CrystalDiskInfo, HWiNFO or AIDA64 will show you information such as health percentage, temperature, total data written and error rates. They make it clear whether your SSD is in good shape or on the way out. A few tools will even send you alerts if your drive’s health drops below safety margins.
One of the greatest benefits, when it comes to third-party software, is that of compatibility. Unlike manufacturer tools, which are limited to specific brands of SSD, these software can read SMART data from practically any drive in both SATA and NVMe form factors. This is particularly useful if you have multiple PC drives from different storage manufacturers.
As much as we like these tools to give us the full picture, it’s important that they are treated as a supplement to manufacturer programs. They won’t always be able to identify brand-specific functions or firmware updates.
How To Interpret SSD Health Results
When you’re reviewing your SSD’s health, it’s useful to know what the values mean so you can take appropriate action. Most tools give you a health percentage, even if it only starts at 100% (for the new drive). As SSDs age, this percentage will start to fall.
A “Healthy” or over 90% reading typically indicates your SSD is healthy and performing normally. Warnings or lower percentages mean that some of the memory cells are failing, and the drive is nearing the end of its life. It’s a warning to start backing up important data and thinking about lining up a replacement.
Reallocated sectors, media wear and temperature are other SMART attributes with which you can read between the lines. High number of reallocated sectors/or temp readings, could indicate a problem even if overall health is ok.
Values may vary slightly between tools since they calculate wear using firmware and manufacturer algorithms. The main aim is to monitor trends over the long-term with slightly decreasing numbers being OK, but rapid declines or new error alerts warrant further investigation.
If you are aware of these results, you can avoid sudden failure, protect your data and increase the lifespan of your SSD.
Signs and Symptoms You Should Monitor SSD Health Regularly
Your SSD’s health is something you’ll want to keep a close eye on, especially if you depend heavily on your PC whether in the context of work, gaming or for simply storing important files. There are some signs that it’s time do a health check.
Slow Speed
One of the most widely recognized signs is reduced speed. If boot times are getting longer, apps are slow to launch or file transfers begin to lag, then your SSD is suffering from wear and tear or has bad blocks spread across it.
Regular Crashes
Repeated system crashes or freezes could also be indication of a faulty SSD. Cause an improper shutdowns, blue screen or maybe even corrupted files are a sign of a drive that’s starting to go into failure.
Other Signs
Strange noises (in the case of hybrid drives), unusually high operating temperatures and repeated notifications from Windows or third-party diagnostic tools. Yet even if they’re symptom-free, you should still book regular health checks to prevent shock announcements and protect your data.
Regular monitoring will empower you to catch early issues, schedule backups and act before your SSD reaches an unstable state, safeguarding both its performance level and data integrity.
Tips For Maintaining the SSD and Prolonging Its Life
Taking care of your SSD can help it last longer and maintain its speed. One of the easiest things you can do is to make sure your firmware is current. Manufacturers will issue updates to cure the problems or a slow down of some sort that could affect reliability.
The other important practice is the avoidance of overfilling the drive. By leaving a bit of space, as in 20-30% between cells, the SSD can better manage writing data and not stress out the memory blocks.
Turning on TRIM, which is typically enabled by default in Windows 10 and 11 allows the solid-state drive to better manage blocks of unused data, keeping it speedy and extending its life.
Unnecessary defragmentation should be minimized as well. Unlike old fashioned hard drives, SSDs don’t need to be defragmented and doing so can contribute to wear.
Finally, maintain proper cooling. SSDs, especially NVMe drives, can get hot when under heavy load. Memory cells degrade quicker when overheated, so make sure your PC has adequate airflow or cooling.
Advanced SSD Health Checks and Alternatives
For those who want more than basic health monitoring, there exist more advanced ways to check your SSD’s condition. They give us a better understanding of performance, wear and potential issues before they become critical.
One way to do it is through professional diagnostic software, such as AIDA64 or HWiNFO. Details such as SMART attributes and temperature, power on hours, estimated remaining life are shown. Especially for IT professionals or users who have more than one hard drive.
A different approach is to use one of the manufacturer-specific diagnostic tools like Samsung Magician, WD Dashboard, or Crucial Storage Executive. These may include firmware updates, performance benchmarks and secure erase as well as health monitoring.
You can also use Windows’ performance monitoring tools, like Performance Monitor, to measure your read/write speeds over time. It’s possible for there to be performance admission with underlying wear or early failure occurring, despite “healthy” SMART data.
For ultimate peace of mind, using a combination of built-in Windows utilities, manufacturer software and third party tools will help you catch potential issues early on and keep your SSD in top shape.
Troubleshooting SSD Health Checks
At times SSD health checking doesn’t work quietly. There are some known problems that can cause tools to fail in reading SMART information properly. Knowing these difficulties can prevent you from delivering spurious results.
A common problem is that some SSDs can’t utilize SMART reporting properly. In these cases, built-in commands may display “Unknown” or No information. This is usually corrected with proprietary-software or third-party tools, as they can communicate directly to the drive.
NVMe disks will emit detailed health statistics, while SATA may only report simple SMART messages. When you know your drive type it can help you to select the best monitoring method.
If a utility does not recognize your SSD at all, make sure that the drivers and firmware are current. It may be that the storage drivers or BIOS is so outdated as to not properly detect.
Finally, if you continue to see errors or warnings, backup your data as soon as possible and replace the drive, even if the software says it’s healthy. Timely interception would forestall potential loss of data and downtime.
Conclusion
It’s a simple but important step to ensure your data is safe, and your system still runs like it should. Using utilities, manufacturer software and 3rd party tools you can monitor health of your drive for any existing or potential problems before they effect data loss.
Regular checks, coupled with proper care, such as keeping the firmware updated, avoiding running out of free space and maintaining adequate cooling can go a long way toward extending your SSD’s lifespan.
Finally, staying ahead of your SSD’s normal wear and tear by remaining proactive can not only help ensure your files safety, but also will make your day-to-day computing experience smooth and reliable.