6 Ways to Check Hard Disk Health in Windows

It’s easy to replace most PC components, but the invaluable data on your hard drive can’t be replaced without a backup. Check your hard disk health regularly with built-in and third-party tools to ensure that you’re always prepared.

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Early Signs Hard Drive Is Failing

Typically, you’ll get some warning before your hard drive health starts to decline. These signs may only appear a few weeks before the drive fails, so act quickly, and back up your data regularly. When following the methods listed to check your hard disk for failure, look for these early signs:

Increasingly longer boot times
System crashes, especially when they happen often
Blue Screen of Death appears, especially if it happens frequently
BIOS errors upon startup
Missing files (segments are failing)
Longer file load times in File Explorer

1. Check Hard Disk Health From the BIOS

Your BIOS has quite a few built-in tools, including a way to check your hard disk. Reboot your PC, and as soon as your PC starts, press Delete, F2, F12, or whichever buttons the boot screen tells you will take you to your BIOS. You can also set Windows to boot directly into the BIOS.

Once in the BIOS, the exact instructions depend on your motherboard manufacturer. For instance, on our old MSI Mortar Wi-Fi B550M in the BIOS, we can go to Settings -> Advanced -> NVME Self-Test to test the health of the NVMe drives.

On newer HP laptops, there’s a separate UEFI diagnostic tool. Access it by pressing F2 during boot, then go to Component Tests -> Hard Drive to run tests on one or more drives.

The BIOS is also a good place to see whether the hard drive is actually being detected by your PC/motherboard.

On Dell and HP laptops, you can check hard drive health by going to the BIOS and looking for Diagnostics.

2. Optimize and Defrag Your Hard Drive

Both HDDs and SSDs slow down over time. With HDDs, part of the problem is due to fragmented files stored in various sectors, while SSDs don’t have the fragmentation problem. However, both types of drives need optimizing from time to time to boost performance and extend the life of the drive.

Use the built-in Windows Defragment and Optimize Drives tool to scan and optimize your drives. Open Start, and search for disk defrag. Choose Defragment and Optimize Drives from the results.

Select your drive, and click Optimize to run a scan for fragmented files and optimize the drive for better performance. Windows typically does this for SSDs on a regular basis.

If you’re running an HDD, use these tips to properly defrag your drive. If you’re running an SSD, make sure you’re following this list.

3. Use the HDD Manufacturer’s Tools

Most major hard drive manufacturers provide free robust tools to monitor and check your hard drive health and performance. The first step to knowing which one to use is, of course, knowing the make of your hard drive.

If you already know the make of your hard drive, you can skip this part. Otherwise, press Win + X, and select Device Manager. Expand Disk drives, and jot down the model number of your hard drive.

Use your favorite search engine to search for the model number. Once you know the manufacturer, search for its hard drive utility.

The following are links to the relevant download pages of some of the biggest hard drive brands:

Western Digital
Seagate (works with most hard drive brands)
Samsung

Each of these tools functions a little differently, but most importantly, each has diagnostic features to test your hard drive health.

4. Use Windows CHKDSK Tool

The built-in Windows CHKDSK tool scans your hard disk to find system errors and bad sectors. It also helps check hard disk health by showing you any errors. It scans and fixes problems (if possible), and lets you know whether there is a bigger problem that it can’t fix.

Open Start and type cmd. Choose Run as administrator under Command Prompt.

Enter chkdsk at the prompt, and hit Enter to run a basic scan.

You can also use chkdsk /f /r to fix bad sectors and recover any readable data. Another option is chkdsk /f /r /x, which dismounts the drive first. Microsoft has a list of parameters to use with chkdsk to check your hard disk health.

If Windows has already given you a hard drive error message, diagnose the issue with these troubleshooting tips.

5. Use WMIC to Check Hard Disk Health

WMIC is a command-line interface that lets you perform many administrative tasks, including hard disk health checks. It uses the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) feature to see the status and provide a simple conclusion, like “OK,” “Pred Fail,” etc. It’s fairly basic but offers a little insight.

Press Win + R to open the Run dialog. Type cmd and click OK to open the Windows command prompt.

Type wmic and hit Enter. When the WMI interface is ready, type:

diskdrive get status

Press Enter again to see the status of your hard disk.

6. Use a Third-Party Hard Disk Health Checking Tool

You can also use a third-party tool to check hard disk health and gather much more information than just a good or bad status. These tools use the same S.M.A.R.T feature of hard disks to fetch data, just like WMIC.

CrystalDiskInfo

CrystalDiskInfo is a free, yet powerful tool that offers a variety of details, such as temperature, health status, hard disk type and features, and other attributes, like read/write error rate, spin-up time, etc. It has various themes to keep things fun.

EaseUS Partition Master

The free version of EaseUS Partition Master features a variety of partitioning tools, but also Bad Sector Scan and Rebuild MBR tools to check hard drive health. While there’s a premium version with more advanced features, especially for backing up your hard drive, the free one is all you need to check your drive.

PassMark DiskCheckup

DiskCheckup from PassMark shows far more information than EaseUS. It’s a lightweight, free tool that shows you a variety of SMART elements, such as temperature, spin-up time, hours on, endurance, and more. There is also a threshold, to learn whether an element is out of the healthy range.

What Should I Do If My Hard Drive Is Failing?

All of these methods are great for checking hard disk health, but they don’t fix the problem. If you suspect anything is wrong, take action immediately.

Make a backup of all important files. If your hard drive is already having major issues, start by backing up what’s most important. The drive may not last long enough to do a full disk image. Make backups regularly – even if your drive’s not currently failing.
Make a list of all installed software and product keys. Create a list of everything you need to install, along with any product keys to transition easier. Belarc Advisor helps, but if you can create a full disk image, you likely won’t have to worry about it.
Save work frequently. If you’re trying to get the last bit of life out of your drive, make sure you’re saving any open files regularly to an external drive or a cloud-based storage service.
Have another drive or device ready. There are two options: buy a new hard drive and install it in your current computer, which is ideal if your device is still fairly new, or it may be time to consider a new computer.

Another option you may consider is removing the faulty drive and working completely from a USB drive or external hard drive. This allows you to connect to any computer and have the same setup. These top Linux distros have a similar Windows setup.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do hard drives normally last?

A mechanical hard drive usually lasts three to five years but can last longer if you’re careful and don’t toss your laptop around. SSDs tend to last around 10 years. Of course, hardware does have glitches sometimes, just like any product, so the drive could fail sooner rather than later.

How can I make my hard drive last longer?

If you’re using an HDD, be careful with it, especially when it’s spinning. Any type of shock, such as dropping your laptop, can destroy your hard drive. Also, ensure that your PC is properly vented to prevent overheating, which can cause drives to prematurely fail.

While you can’t prevent manufacturing defects, treating your PC as if it’s the only one you’ll ever have can help extend your hard drive’s life span by a year or more. If you’re already noticing issues, though, it’s too late – it’s time to back up your data and get a new hard drive or new PC.

Can I also test the health of my external drives?

Yes. Most of the tools above will let you test external hard drives as well. After all, these fail just like internal drives. Testing an external drive’s health can help ensure that you don’t lose your backup drive without warning. If you’re testing SD cards, try these tools.

Image credit: Unsplash. All screenshots by Crystal Crowder.

Crystal Crowder –
Staff Writer

Crystal Crowder has spent over 15 years working in the tech industry, first as an IT technician and then as a writer. She works to help teach others how to get the most from their devices, systems, and apps. She stays on top of the latest trends and is always finding solutions to common tech problems.

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