Run a disk health check before it's too late

Steps

1. 01

   Read the health page Windows actually keeps

   Windows has one, and it is not in Task Manager

   Windows 11

   • Windows 11:Settings›System›Storage›Advanced storage settings›Disks & volumes, then Properties for the drive

   Windows 10

   • Windows 10:Settings›System›Storage›Manage disks and volumes, then Properties for the drive

   • Microsoft is explicit about the limit: Windows only monitors NVM SSD and not SATA SSD or hard disk drives. If there is no health section, that is why

   ✓You should see: A drive health section listing estimated remaining life, available spare and temperature.

   Why?

   NVMe drives are the stick-shaped ones that slot straight onto the motherboard. A 2.5-inch drive on a cable is SATA, and Windows will not report on it here.

2. 02

   Understand the three numbers

   They are percentages and a temperature, not a pass or fail

   • Estimated remaining life is the approximate percentage used, based on the manufacturer's own prediction of the drive's life
   • Available spare is a normalised percentage of the spare capacity the drive still has to swap in for cells that have worn out
   • Temperature is the whole device in degrees Celsius

   ✓You should see: Three figures you can write down and compare against in six months.

   Why?

   The useful habit is checking twice a year and remembering the numbers. A single reading tells you little; the same figure dropping noticeably between checks tells you a lot.

3. 03

   Act on what they say

   Microsoft's own advice for a storage warning is short: back up your data

   • Available spare falling toward zero means the drive has nearly run out of replacement capacity — order a replacement rather than waiting to see
   • Estimated remaining life in low single digits means the same thing in slower motion
   • A drive that is still healthy is the right moment to check your backup actually restores, not the moment after

   !Careful: A drive does not have to be dying for your data to be at risk, and a healthy reading is never a reason to skip the backup. Treat these numbers as a reason to act early, not as permission to wait.

   Also see: Back up properly (3-2-1 rule)

4. 04

   Check a SATA SSD or hard drive another way

   Windows will not, so use the maker's tool

   • Samsung publishes Magician and Crucial publishes Storage Executive, both from their own official sites — never a download portal
   • These read the drive's own S.M.A.R.T. data, which is where attributes like reallocated sector counts live. Those are the drive's figures, not something Windows surfaces

   Why?

   S.M.A.R.T. reporting OK is not a clean bill of health. It only means no threshold the manufacturer chose has been crossed yet — a reallocated sector count that is climbing at all is the warning, whatever the overall verdict says.

5. 05

   Run chkdsk for file-system trouble, not for wear

   Different job: chkdsk checks the file system, not the hardware's remaining life

   • Run chkdsk C: from an admin command prompt if files or folders are behaving strangely. It takes a while, so start it when you do not need the PC

   !Careful: Do not run chkdsk /r on a drive you already suspect. The full surface scan hammers a failing disk for hours and is quite capable of finishing it off. Copy the data somewhere safe first, then test.

   Also see: Repair corrupted system files