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How to check SSD health in Windows Settings
Microsoft’s documented path is Start > Settings > System > Storage > Advanced storage settings > Disks & volumes. Select the disk you want to inspect, then choose Properties. If Windows has raised a critical warning, you can also select its notification to reach details about the affected disk. Microsoft Support explains the warning and the Settings health view.
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What the Settings values mean
- Estimated remaining life: An approximate percentage based on the manufacturer’s prediction. It is an estimate, not a countdown to a known failure date.
- Available spare: A normalized percentage of spare capacity available on the device. A low value can trigger a critical warning if it falls below the manufacturer’s threshold.
- Temperature: The device temperature, shown in degrees Celsius.
Microsoft notes that consuming estimated life does not, by itself, establish that the SSD has failed.
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Why the health panel may be missing
Windows’ documented health view monitors NVM SSDs, not SATA SSDs or hard disk drives. Microsoft puts it plainly: “Windows only monitors NVM SSD and not SATA SSD or hard disk drives (HDD).” The limitation is documented in Microsoft Support’s critical-warning guidance.
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If your drive is SATA, or Windows does not expose its health information, the absence of this panel is not evidence that the drive is either healthy or failing. The Settings view is also not a universal health check for every storage device.
What Windows critical warnings mean
Microsoft describes three kinds of critical warning for an NVM SSD:
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- Low available spare: Spare capacity has fallen below the manufacturer’s safety threshold.
- Degraded reliability: Significant media-related errors or an internal NVM subsystem error have affected reliability.
- Read-only state: The drive’s stored data can still be accessed, but the device cannot be written to.
A warning is a reason to protect your files promptly, not a precise forecast of when the drive will stop working. Microsoft recommends backing up important data when Windows raises a critical warning. Copy it to a separate backup location; an external SSD can serve as a backup destination, but it does not diagnose or repair the internal drive.
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Check disk status and reliability counters with PowerShell
PowerShell can show disks and, when the device and storage provider report them, additional reliability counters. Open PowerShell and run the commands below.
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List disks Windows can see
Get-PhysicalDiskThis lists PhysicalDisk objects visible through available Storage Management Providers. The output can include OperationalStatus and HealthStatus. Microsoft notes that a storage management provider is required to manage physical disks. See Microsoft’s Get-PhysicalDisk reference.
Request reliability counters
Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter | Format-ListThe output may include power-on hours, temperature, read and write errors, and wear. Not every field is necessarily populated: the values depend on what the drive and provider expose. Microsoft defines the command this way: “The Get-StorageReliabilityCounter cmdlet gets the storage reliability counters for the specified disk or physical disk.” Consult Microsoft’s Get-StorageReliabilityCounter reference.
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Can Windows tell you how much SSD life is left?
It can report an estimate on supported drives, but it cannot turn that estimate into a dependable number of days or years remaining. NVMe’s health log includes a percentage used field. Microsoft describes it as a vendor-specific estimate based on actual usage and the manufacturer’s prediction of device life. A value of 100 means estimated endurance has been consumed; it does not necessarily mean the drive has failed, and the reported value can exceed 100. Microsoft documents the NVMe health-log fields.
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Settings or PowerShell: which should you use?
| Method | How you use it | What it can show | Important limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Settings | Point-and-click: System > Storage > Advanced storage settings > Disks & volumes > disk > Properties | User-facing attributes such as estimated remaining life, available spare and temperature. | The documented health view is for NVM SSDs, not SATA SSDs or HDDs. |
| PowerShell | Run Get-PhysicalDisk and the reliability-counter pipeline. |
Disk status and counters the device/provider reports, potentially including errors, wear, temperature and time in use. | Some fields may be blank or unavailable; reported indicators do not provide a guaranteed failure date. |
Start with Settings if you want a quick health view or are responding to an alert. Use PowerShell when you want to inspect the exposed status and counters in more detail. If a critical warning appears, prioritize backing up important files rather than trying to infer an exact remaining lifespan from a percentage.
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