What to do right now
- Quick look: Settings › System › Storage › Advanced storage settings › Disks & volumes › Properties.
- Full detail: read the NVMe health log with a health tool and check media errors, available spare, critical warning and percentage used.
- Sector counts such as reallocated or pending are ATA values; on NVMe they are correctly shown as Not applicable.
Step by step
Take a quick look in Windows
On Windows 11 open Settings › System › Storage › Advanced storage settings › Disks & volumes, choose the NVMe drive and select Properties. Drive health usually shows estimated remaining life, available spare and temperature. Some Windows 10 builds have a similar page under Manage disks and volumes.
Open Disk health & tools
In FileFix Ultimate, open Disk health & tools and select the NVMe SSD. The app reads the drive's health log through Windows and lists each value with a status: Healthy, Needs attention, At risk or Not enough data.
Check the four key values
Look at Media errors, Available spare, Critical warning and Wear level, which is the drive's percentage used. Media errors above zero or any critical warning flag deserve attention right away. Wear level only tells you how much rated endurance has been used.
Read the context values
Temperature, Power-on time, Unsafe shutdowns and Total data written put the key values in context. Compare total data written with the endurance rating on the manufacturer's data sheet to see how far through its rated life the drive is.
Understand Not applicable
The app lists ATA indicators such as reallocated or pending sectors as Not applicable on NVMe drives. That is a fact about the interface, not a missing reading. Not enough data, in contrast, means a value that should exist could not be read.
Note the values and act on the advice
Write down the main values so you can compare them in a few months. Needs attention means back up soon and check again. At risk means copy important files now, avoid heavy use and plan a replacement.
What each NVMe value means
Percentage used is the manufacturer's estimate of how much of the rated write endurance is gone. It starts at zero, can go above 100 on drives used beyond their rating, and does not mean the drive stops at that point. Available spare is the share of reserve blocks still left to replace worn ones; the drive also reports a threshold, often around 10 percent, and dropping below it raises the critical warning.
Media and data integrity errors count reads the controller could not correct. On a healthy drive this stays at zero, and a rising count is a stronger warning than a high wear level. The critical warning is a set of flags for low spare, temperature, degraded reliability and read-only mode; a drive that has switched itself to read-only mode is protecting the data it still holds.
Temperature is the controller's composite reading. NVMe drives get warm under load and many slow themselves down when they get too hot, often somewhere above 70 °C depending on the model. Occasional peaks during large copies are normal; a drive that sits hot while idle usually needs better airflow.
Why NVMe shows Not applicable instead of Unknown
SATA drives report a list of numbered SMART attributes, and each manufacturer chooses which ones to include. NVMe drives use one fixed health log defined by the NVMe standard, without reallocated, pending or offline uncorrectable sector counts. Labelling those as Unknown would suggest something went wrong while reading. FileFix Ultimate marks them Not applicable instead and explains that NVMe reports media errors, available spare and the critical warning in their place.
What Windows lets programs see
Programs read NVMe health through the Windows storage driver. With the standard Microsoft NVMe driver this usually works without extra software. Some vendor drivers, RAID or Intel RST and VMD setups, and many USB-to-NVMe enclosures pass only part of the log or none of it. In that case values appear as Not enough data. Manufacturer-specific logs, such as detailed wear by block, are not part of the standard log and are not shown.
Limits of an NVMe health check
- USB enclosures, RAID modes and some vendor drivers can hide part or all of the health log.
- Percentage used and available spare are the manufacturer's own estimates and are not directly comparable between brands.
- Controller or firmware failures can happen suddenly while every value still looks healthy.
- The firmware check only compares against an offline advisory list; it does not install firmware, and no listed issue does not mean your firmware is current.
How FileFix Ultimate helps
- Reads the NVMe health log and explains each value in plain language with a clear status.
- Marks ATA-only indicators as Not applicable and unreadable ones as Not enough data instead of guessing Healthy.
- Offers a maintenance plan as advice only; nothing on the drive is changed.
- Adds a read-only surface scan that can find areas that have become slow to read on an SSD.
- Free for personal use and fully offline; nothing about your drives is sent anywhere.
FileFix Ultimate is free for personal use, works offline and never writes to the drive you are recovering from. Business use needs a one-year licence per PC. Check the signature before you run it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good available spare value?
On a new or lightly used drive it usually reads at or near its maximum. What matters is the distance to the threshold the drive reports. A value that is falling steadily toward that threshold is a reason to back up and plan a replacement.
My NVMe drive shows hundreds of unsafe shutdowns. Is that a problem?
Often it is not. The counter rises every time power is lost without a proper shutdown, including forced restarts and some sleep problems. Modern SSDs are built to cope, but frequent power loss raises the risk of damage, so check the power supply and shut down normally.
Why does Windows say my SSD is healthy when the app shows Needs attention?
Windows shows a broad summary based on a few values. The app also looks at individual indicators such as media errors or a rising temperature. A single value outside the normal range is enough for Needs attention, which means back up and check again, not that the drive is failing.
Does checking NVMe health slow down or wear the drive?
No. Reading the health log is a small request that the drive answers instantly. It does not write anything and has no effect on endurance.