How To Check SSD Health On Windows 11

ByJames Kennedy SSD Maintenance & Health

Your SSD won’t give you a dramatic warning before it dies. There’s no grinding noise like an old hard drive, no gradual slowdown you can feel over weeks. One day it works, and the next day your data is gone. That’s what makes monitoring your SSD’s health so important, especially if you’re running Windows 11 on a drive that’s been in service for a couple of years or more.

The good thing is that every modern SSD constantly tracks its own health behind the scenes using a technology called SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology). You just need the right tools to read that data and understand what it means. This guide will walk you through every practical method for checking your SSD health on Windows 11, from built-in system tools to the best third-party software available.

I’ll also explain the key metrics you should actually care about, because most SMART data is noise. By the end, you’ll know exactly how much life your SSD has left and when it’s time to start shopping for a replacement.

Method 1: Windows 11’s Built-In Storage Health Check

Windows 11 actually includes a basic SSD health monitor that most people don’t know about. Microsoft added this feature starting with Windows 10 build 20226, and it’s been refined in Windows 11. It reads NVMe SMART data directly and gives you a simple health estimate.

Using the Settings App

Open Settings > System > Storage > Advanced storage settings > Disks & volumes. Click on your SSD, then click Properties. You’ll see a “Drive health” section that shows the estimated remaining life, available spare capacity, and temperature.

This works well for a quick check, but it only supports NVMe drives. If you’re running a SATA SSD, you won’t see health data here. The information is also fairly limited, showing just three or four data points instead of the full SMART attribute list.

Using Command Prompt or PowerShell

For a slightly more detailed look, open PowerShell as Administrator and run this command:

Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter | Format-List

This pulls reliability counters including temperature, wear, read/write errors, and power-on hours. It works for both NVMe and SATA drives, though the available attributes vary by manufacturer. Keep in mind that some budget SSDs report incomplete data through this method.

Method 2: CrystalDiskInfo (The Best Free Option)

CrystalDiskInfo is my top recommendation for most people. It’s free, lightweight, portable (no installation required if you grab the ZIP version), and it reads virtually every SMART attribute your SSD exposes. I’ve been using it for over a decade, and it remains the gold standard for quick drive health checks.

How to Use CrystalDiskInfo

  1. Download CrystalDiskInfo from the official site at crystalmark.info. Grab the “Standard Edition” unless you want anime themes (yes, those exist).
  2. Install or extract the portable version, then launch it.
  3. The app immediately scans all connected drives and displays their health status with a color-coded indicator: Blue = Good, Yellow = Caution, Red = Bad.

The main screen shows your drive’s firmware version, serial number, interface type, transfer mode, and total host reads/writes. Below that, you’ll see a full table of SMART attributes with current values, worst recorded values, and threshold values.

What to Look For in CrystalDiskInfo

Don’t get overwhelmed by the wall of numbers. Focus on these specific attributes:

  • Percentage Used (NVMe) or Wear Leveling Count (SATA): This tells you how much of the SSD’s rated lifespan has been consumed. A value of 90% used means you’ve burned through 90% of the drive’s expected write endurance.
  • Reallocated Sector Count: On SATA SSDs, this shows how many bad NAND cells have been replaced with spare cells. A small number is normal. A rapidly increasing number is a red flag.
  • Power On Hours: Simply how long the drive has been running. Useful for warranty purposes and general context.
  • Total Host Writes: The total amount of data written to the drive over its lifetime, usually displayed in gigabytes or terabytes.
  • Temperature: SSDs thermal throttle and degrade faster at high temperatures. Anything consistently above 70°C for an NVMe drive is a concern.

You can also set CrystalDiskInfo to run in your system tray and alert you if health status changes. Go to Function > Resident and Function > Startup to enable this. It’s a set-and-forget early warning system.

Method 3: Manufacturer-Specific Tools

Every major SSD manufacturer offers their own health monitoring software, and these tools often provide the most accurate health readings because they’re designed for that specific drive’s firmware. They also tend to include features that generic tools can’t offer, like firmware updates and secure erase options.

Samsung Magician

If you have a Samsung 870 EVO, 980 PRO, 990 PRO, or any other Samsung SSD, Samsung Magician is excellent. It shows drive health as a percentage, total bytes written, temperature, and even offers performance benchmarking and optimization features. The “Diagnostic Scan” feature runs a full surface scan to check for bad blocks. Download it from Samsung’s official page.

Western Digital Dashboard

For WD Blue, WD Black, and WD Green SSDs (plus SanDisk drives, since WD owns SanDisk), the WD Dashboard provides SMART monitoring, firmware updates, and a drive health indicator. It’s not as polished as Samsung Magician, but it gets the job done reliably.

Crucial Storage Executive

Crucial’s tool covers their MX500, P5 Plus, and other drives. It includes a useful “Momentum Cache” feature for SATA drives and shows remaining SSD life as a clear percentage. It also handles firmware updates, which is important because firmware bugs can sometimes cause premature wear.

Other Manufacturers

Kingston has the SSD Manager, Seagate has SeaTools, and Intel (now Solidigm for consumer drives) has the Solidigm Storage Tool. If you’re not sure what SSD you have, open CrystalDiskInfo first to identify the model, then download the matching manufacturer tool.

Understanding SMART Attributes: What Actually Matters

SMART data can include 30+ attributes depending on the drive, and most of them are irrelevant to you as an end user. Here’s what you should genuinely pay attention to.

TBW (Terabytes Written)

Every SSD has a TBW endurance rating set by the manufacturer. This represents the total amount of data you can write to the drive before the NAND flash memory is expected to wear out. For example, a Samsung 870 EVO 1TB has a TBW rating of 600 TB. A WD Black SN850X 1TB is rated for 600 TBW as well.

To check where you stand, compare your drive’s “Total Host Writes” (shown in CrystalDiskInfo or your manufacturer tool) against the TBW rating listed on the manufacturer’s spec sheet. If you’ve written 120 TB on a drive rated for 600 TBW, you’ve used about 20% of its write endurance.

For typical home use, including gaming, web browsing, and office work, most people write between 10 and 30 TB per year. That means a 600 TBW drive could theoretically last 20 to 60 years of normal use. Write endurance is rarely the thing that kills consumer SSDs.

Remaining Life Percentage

This is the single most useful metric. NVMe drives report it as “Percentage Used” (where 0% is brand new and 100% means it’s reached its rated endurance). SATA drives typically show it as “Wear Leveling Count” or a similar attribute.

A drive can continue working past 100% used, but the manufacturer no longer guarantees reliability at that point. Think of it like the odometer on a car. Going past the warranty mileage doesn’t mean the engine explodes, but your risk of failure increases.

Reallocated Sectors and Pending Sectors

SSDs have spare NAND cells set aside to replace cells that go bad. A few reallocated sectors over the life of a drive is completely normal. What you don’t want to see is this number climbing rapidly over days or weeks. That pattern indicates accelerating NAND degradation, and it means you should back up your data and plan for a replacement soon.

Temperature

NVMe SSDs, especially Gen 4 and Gen 5 models like the Samsung 990 PRO or Crucial T700, can run hot under sustained workloads. Operating temperatures above 70°C trigger thermal throttling, which hurts performance. Consistently high temperatures also accelerate NAND wear. If your NVMe drive regularly exceeds 65°C, consider adding a heatsink or improving your case airflow.

When Should You Replace Your SSD?

This is where you need to be practical rather than paranoid. Here’s my recommendation based on years of experience and industry data.

Replace immediately if:

  • CrystalDiskInfo shows a Red/Bad health status
  • Reallocated sector count is increasing by more than a few sectors per week
  • You’re experiencing unexplained file corruption, blue screens related to storage, or disappearing files
  • The drive has exceeded its TBW rating AND is showing other warning signs

Start planning a replacement if:

  • CrystalDiskInfo shows Yellow/Caution status
  • Remaining life is below 10%
  • The drive is more than 5 years old and holds critical data without redundant backups

Don’t worry yet if:

  • Health shows Good/Blue with remaining life above 50%
  • TBW usage is well within the rated endurance
  • No reallocated sectors or only a tiny, stable number

One important note: an SSD can fail suddenly regardless of SMART data. Controller failures, firmware bugs, and power surge damage don’t always show up in health metrics beforehand. This is why backups matter more than monitoring. Monitoring tells you when failure is likely. Backups save you when failure is sudden.

Setting Up Ongoing Monitoring

Checking your SSD health once is useful. Checking it automatically on an ongoing basis is much better. Here’s my recommended setup.

Install CrystalDiskInfo and enable both Resident mode (system tray icon) and Startup (launches with Windows). Configure it to alert you when health status changes by going to Function > Alert Settings. You can set it to notify you via system notification or even email.

Check your manufacturer’s tool once every few months for firmware updates. Firmware updates occasionally fix bugs that can affect drive longevity or data integrity. Samsung Magician and Crucial Storage Executive both make this easy with one-click update checks.

Keep a mental note (or a spreadsheet if you’re that type) of your Total Host Writes every six months. This helps you estimate your personal write rate and predict when you’ll approach the TBW limit, even if that date is years away.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does checking SSD health affect performance or lifespan?

Not at all. Reading SMART data is a passive operation. The SSD’s controller collects and stores this information continuously whether you read it or not. Running CrystalDiskInfo, manufacturer tools, or the Windows built-in check has zero impact on your drive’s performance or longevity.

How often should I check my SSD’s health?

For most users, once a month is more than enough if you don’t have automatic monitoring set up. If you use CrystalDiskInfo’s resident mode, it checks continuously in the background and will alert you to any changes. For drives older than three years or drives used for heavy workloads (video editing, database servers), a monthly manual review of the full SMART data is a good habit.

My SSD health shows 100% used but it still works fine. Do I need to replace it right away?

Not necessarily. The 100% mark means the drive has reached its manufacturer-rated endurance, but most SSDs continue to function well beyond that point. Studies from Backblaze and others have shown drives operating reliably at 2x or even 3x their rated TBW. That said, you’re now in uncharted territory. Back up everything important and keep a replacement drive ready. When other SMART attributes start deteriorating alongside the 100% wear indicator, it’s time to swap the drive.

Can I check the health of an external SSD connected via USB?

It depends on the USB enclosure or bridge chip. Some USB-to-NVMe and USB-to-SATA enclosures pass SMART data through correctly, and CrystalDiskInfo will read it just fine. Others block SMART commands entirely, leaving you with no health data. Enclosures using the JMicron JMS583 or Realtek RTL9210B chipsets generally support SMART passthrough. If your external SSD came as a complete product (like a Samsung T7 or SanDisk Extreme), the manufacturer’s own tool is your best bet for health monitoring.

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