What to do right now
- Read the wear values: percentage used (NVMe) or wear level (SATA).
- Compare data written with the manufacturer's TBW rating.
- Watch available spare and integrity errors; those matter more than age.
Step by step
Open the drive's health data
On Windows 11, Settings › System › Storage › Advanced storage settings › Disks & volumes › Properties shows estimated remaining life for NVMe drives. For full detail, open Disk health & tools in FileFix Ultimate.
Read percentage used
NVMe SSDs report percentage used, an estimate of how much of the rated endurance has been consumed. 100 means the rated life is reached; drives often keep working beyond it.
Check available spare
Available spare is the reserve of replacement blocks. If it drops toward the threshold the drive reports, the SSD is running out of room to replace worn blocks.
Compare data written with TBW
Data units written shows the total written. The manufacturer's datasheet lists endurance as terabytes written (TBW). The ratio is a rough guide to wear.
Plan ahead
If wear is high, spare is falling or media errors appear, back up and plan a replacement. If values are low, there is nothing to do except keep backups.
Why SSDs wear and why most last longer than expected
Each flash cell can be erased and written a limited number of times. The controller spreads writes evenly across all cells, a process called wear levelling, and keeps spare blocks to replace worn ones. For typical home use, most SSDs reach the end of their warranty period long before their rated endurance.
Heavy write workloads, such as video editing scratch disks, virtual machines or constant downloads, wear drives faster. Very full drives also wear faster because the controller has less free space to work with.
SATA SSDs report wear differently
SATA SSDs use vendor-specific SMART attributes, such as wear levelling count or media wearout indicator. Their raw values are not comparable between brands, so look at the normalised value and the vendor's documentation.
Limits of wear readings
- Wear values are estimates from the drive's firmware, not precise measurements.
- Controllers or firmware can fail regardless of wear.
- SSDs connected over some USB adapters do not report health data.
How FileFix Ultimate helps
- Reads the NVMe health log: percentage used, available spare, data written, temperatures and critical warnings.
- Explains SATA SSD attributes where the drive reports them and says Not enough data otherwise.
- Looks up known firmware advisories for your drive model offline.
- Detects slow-reading regions with a read-only surface scan.
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
My SSD still shows full health after years. Is that right?
Light use can leave wear very low. Some tools also round; check percentage used and data written for more detail.
What happens when an SSD reaches its TBW?
Nothing happens at that exact point. The rating is the warranty limit. Wear-related errors become more likely beyond it, so keep backups and watch available spare.
Does defragmenting an SSD wear it out?
Windows optimises SSDs with TRIM instead of a classic defragmentation. Running third-party defragmentation tools on an SSD only adds unnecessary writes.
Can I extend my SSD's lifespan?
Keep some free space, avoid using it as a constant download or scratch target if another drive can do that, and keep firmware up to date. Normal use rarely needs any special care.