What to do right now
- Windows 11: Settings › System › Storage › Advanced storage settings › Disks & volumes › Properties.
- For full detail, read SMART and NVMe values with a health tool, ideally with the drive connected directly.
- Focus on trends and on a few key values, not on a single overall percentage.
Step by step
Use the built-in Windows view
On Windows 11, open Settings › System › Storage › Advanced storage settings › Disks & volumes, choose the drive and Properties. NVMe SSDs show estimated remaining life, available spare and temperature.
Try PowerShell for more
In an administrator PowerShell, Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter lists read errors, temperature and wear where the driver reports them.
Open Disk health & tools
FileFix Ultimate reads SMART for SATA drives and the NVMe health log for NVMe SSDs and explains each value in plain language with a status: Healthy, Needs attention, At risk or Not enough data.
Connect the drive directly if values are missing
USB enclosures and card readers often block SMART. Not enough data means the value could not be read, not that the drive is fine.
Act on the advice
Needs attention means back up soon and check again. At risk means stop heavy use, copy important files or create a disk image, and plan a replacement.
The values that matter most
For hard drives: reallocated sector count, current pending sectors, offline uncorrectable sectors and reported uncorrectable errors. Non-zero values, and especially rising ones, mean the surface is degrading. Temperature and power-on hours give context.
For SSDs: percentage used or wear level, available spare, media and data integrity errors and the critical warning flags in the NVMe log. A high percentage used does not mean failure is imminent, but it does mean the drive is far through its rated endurance. Write down the values when the drive is new or healthy, so you have a baseline to compare against later.
What SMART cannot tell you
Drives can fail suddenly with perfect SMART values, for example when electronics fail. SMART is a warning system, not a prediction. A clean report is not a reason to skip backups.
Limits of a SMART check
- Many USB adapters and RAID controllers do not pass SMART through.
- Vendors use different attribute meanings and thresholds; raw values are not always comparable.
- SMART does not cover sudden electronic or firmware failures.
How FileFix Ultimate helps
- Reads SMART attributes and NVMe health data and explains them in plain language.
- Says Not enough data when a value cannot be read, instead of guessing Healthy.
- Adds a read-only surface scan with a latency heatmap to find slow and unreadable areas.
- Gives a maintenance plan as advice only; nothing is changed on the drive.
FileFix Ultimate is free, works offline and never writes to the drive you are recovering from. Check the signature before you run it.
Frequently asked questions
Is wmic diskdrive get status enough?
It only shows the drive's overall pass or fail flag, which often stays OK until very late. It is also deprecated. Individual SMART values give earlier warnings.
My drive shows Caution. Is it about to fail?
Not necessarily, but it is a reason to back up now and watch whether the values keep rising.
Does reading SMART harm the drive?
No. Reading health data is a normal, lightweight operation.
Does Windows warn me when SMART reports a problem?
Windows may show a notification for some drives when the critical warning flag is raised, but often only late. Checking the values yourself gives earlier warning.