Check hard drive health in Windows 10

Hard drives are unfortunately not given eternal life. And you can sometimes notice that in the hardware after a number of years of loyal employment. It may make noises, but you notice it mainly in how slow your computer has become. In Windows 10 you can check the health of your hard drive.

Maybe it's time to say goodbye to that faithful companion. But not before you've checked exactly how he is.

With older hard drives (the hdd), which have moving parts, the drive may make noise over time. The parts then become worn. This is a normal process, one that you cannot prevent. Also, the magnetic sectors can get damaged, unfortunately.

Do you have an SSD in your computer or laptop? Then you will not hear such sounds. But the solid states drives have their own problems. The cells in which data is stored degrade over time. This is a long process thankfully, so you won't notice it right after you take your computer out of the box (otherwise you'll have to take it back to the store). In general, an SSD lasts longer than an HDD.

If there are no other violent things (such as writing that get very hot or have physical damage), then you have to take into account that your hard drive will die at some point. But you can prepare yourself, for example by always making a backup.

Check hard drive health

This is how you can enjoy S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology). That is a system that monitors your hard drive and checks that nothing is wrong. The computer will automatically notify you of any or potential problems, allowing you to replace your hard drive and copy the data before it's too late.

Windows 10 also offers another option that allows you to see for yourself the health of your hard drive. You need the command prompt for that. Open the start menu and type cmd. Now open the Command Prompt and type in the following line.

You will now see one of the two messages. If Pred Fail appears on the screen, then your hard drive doesn't have much time left. If an OK appears, Windows 10 thinks that everything is still functioning properly.