If you are using an SSD storage unit in your device, whether laptop or desktop, it is important to know the status of the unit from time to time to keep your files safe and avoid sudden data loss due to reaching the lowest level of deterioration of the NAND Flash memories. Despite the numerous tools and programs available to check the status and performance of the SSD on the computer, most notably Hard Disk Sentinel and the well-known CrystalDiskInfo tool, Microsoft’s Windows 11 system already includes tools that allow users to know whether the SSD is in good condition or at risk of failure and requires attention. So, let’s review the different ways to know the status of the hard drive on Windows 11 without installing any external programs.
Knowing the State of the SSD in Windows 11
Most SSD manufacturers provide a specific program for adjusting and monitoring the hard drive’s status, such as Samsung Magician. You can also use external programs to monitor the status and performance of the SSD and temperature. However, if you prefer not to use any external programs, you can rely on the built-in tools in Windows 11 to get an idea of the SSD’s status easily in addition to alerting you when the storage unit’s status deteriorates so you can take necessary steps to protect your data like creating a backup or transferring important files to another partition.
The First Method: Through the Settings App
It is essential to note that this function currently works with M.2 NVMe type SSD units and not SATA, you can check our previous topic to know whether the SSD in your device is SATA or NVMe. With this point in mind, let’s start listing the steps to know the state of the SSD in Windows 11 directly through the Settings App.
Press the Win + S keys together on the keyboard to display the search bar where you enter “Manage disks and volumes” and then press the “Open” option to access the storage management page directly. Alternatively, you can manually open the Settings app by pressing Win + I keys together and then go to the “Storage” page in the “System” section and click on “Advanced storage settings” and finally click on “Disks & volumes”.
On the Disks & volumes page, you will see all storage units connected to the computer, and here you need to select an NVMe SSD storage unit, which you can easily identify by the presence of the word “Healthy” next to the unit’s name as shown in the attached image above. Once you select the correct storage unit, click on the “Properties” button.
The unit’s data such as name, storage capacity, model number, etc., will be displayed. However, if you scroll down a bit, you will find a section “Disk Drive Status.” This section displays three pieces of information that affect the storage unit’s performance, and therefore can be used to determine the unit’s status. The first piece of information is “Estimated remaining life,” where the approximate percentage of the storage unit’s life is displayed, so if it is 100%, that means the hard drive has not been heavily used.
The second piece of information “Available spare” also displays a standardized ratio to indicate the presence of sufficient storage capacity to maintain reading and writing performance. As you may know, the performance of the SSD decreases as it gets full, so if the percentage is 100%, this indicates that the spare storage space is greater than the safety threshold set by the manufacturer. Finally, the temperature of the SSD is displayed in degrees Celsius. That’s all there is to it, you can now check the status of the SSD in Windows 11 at any time without relying on any external programs.
You may be interested: Can your hard drive work forever? What is the expected lifespan?
The Second Method: Using Command Prompt
You can indeed use the command prompt in Windows to extract information generated by S.M.A.R.T technology (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology), a feature that sends detailed information about the internal status of the storage unit to the computer, such as write cycles and bad sectors (if any) including temperature and overall status of the unit. Start by pressing the Win + S keys together on the keyboard to open the search bar and then type “CMD” or “Windows Terminal” and then press the “Open” option to open the command prompt. Then enter the following command and press Enter to execute:
wmic diskdrive get model,name,serialnumber,status
After executing the command, some information will be displayed inside the command prompt, what we need is the index below “Status,” if it shows “OK,” it means the storage unit is in good condition. If it shows “Bad” or “Caution,” it indicates a malfunction or failure in the hard drive, while if it shows “Unknown,” it means the hard drive may be facing an imminent malfunction or that the Windows system is having difficulty querying the status from the hard drive’s firmware.
The Third Method: Using the Performance Monitor Tool
Windows 11 also includes a tool called “Performance Monitor” Performance Monitor that can diagnose the computer in general (including storage units) to look for potential problems, and thus can be used to determine the state of the SSD hard drive. All you have to do is run the tool by pressing the Win + R keys together on the keyboard to open the Run window and then type the command [perfmon] and press Enter to display the tool window. Now double click on Data Collector Sets from the sidebar, then double click on System, and finally right-click on System Diagnostics and choose Start.
Then double click on Reports from the same sidebar, double click on System, double click on System Diagnostics, then click on the latest report and wait a few seconds while the tool performs the diagnostics. When finished, click on the plus sign (+) next to Disk Checks under Basic System Checks and check the value under the “Failed” column in front of each of SMART Predict Failure Check and Logical Disk Dirty Bit Check if it is 0, then your SSD is in good condition.
