Check Drive Health and SMART Status in Windows 10

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How to Check Drive Health and SMART Status in Windows 10

With recent updates, Windows 10 is able to retrieve and show the SMART information for storage devices installed in your computer. This allows the user to quickly check the drive health status. The option is available starting in Windows 10 build 20226, which has introduced the Manage disks and volumes page in the Settings app. The new feature supports modern NVMe SSD drives.

When introduced in build 20226, Microsoft had announced the feature as follows.

Attempting to recover data after drive failure is both frustrating and expensive. This feature is designed to detect hardware abnormalities for NVMe SSDs and notify users with enough time to act. It is strongly recommended that users immediately back up their data after receiving a notification.

So the new option is not just a page in Settings, it is a full featured storage monitor option.

S.M.A.R.T., also written as SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a monitoring system implemented in computer disk drives, including HDDs, SSDs, and eMMC devices. Its primary function is to detect and report drive reliability indicators to prevent data loss and predict catastrophic hardware failures.

To Check Drive Health and SMART Status in Windows 10,

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Go to System > Storage.
  3. On the right, click on the Manage Disks and Volumes link.
  4. On the next page, click the on the drive you want to check the SMART status for.
  5. Click on the Properties button below the drive's name line.
  6. On the next page, you'll find the drive health report value under the Drive health section.

You are done.

If you don’t see the temperature details, ensure that you have the proper Windows 10 build installed. Also, this may mean that your drive is not recognized properly by Windows 10, so the OS can't retrieve its temperature. As of the time of this writing, it only supports NVMe SSD drives.

In this case, you can use a few other built-in Windows tools to retrieve the drive status indicator values. If you are running a Windows 10 version without the above feature, you can do the following.

Check Drive Health and SMART Status in PowerShell

  1. Open PowerShell as Administrator.
  2. Type or copy-paste the following command: Get-WmiObject -namespace root\wmi -class MSStorageDriver_FailurePredictStatus.
  3. See the line PredictFailure. For a healthy drive, it should say False.
  4. If the above value is True, then the drive is in the faulty state. The next line, Reason,  contains the status code that describes the exact reason of the issue. See the reference table below for the error codes.

Check Drive Health and SMART Status in Command Prompt

  1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator.
  2. Type or copy-paste the following command: wmic /namespace:\\root\wmi path MSStorageDriver_FailurePredictStatus.
  3. See the PredictFailure column. For a healthy drive, it should say False.
  4. If the above value is True, then the drive is in the faulty state. The next column, Reason,  contains the status code that describes the exact reason of the issue. See the reference table below for the error codes.

Known SMART attributes and status codes

ID Attribute name Description
01
0x01
Read Error Rate (Vendor specific raw value.) Stores data related to the rate of hardware read errors that occurred when reading data from a disk surface. The raw value has different structure for different vendors and is often not meaningful as a decimal number.
02
0x02
Throughput Performance Overall (general) throughput performance of a hard disk drive. If the value of this attribute is decreasing there is a high probability that there is a problem with the disk.
03
0x03
Spin-Up Time Average time of spindle spin up (from zero RPM to fully operational [milliseconds]).
04
0x04
Start/Stop Count A tally of spindle start/stop cycles. The spindle turns on, and hence the count is increased, both when the hard disk is turned on after having before been turned entirely off (disconnected from power source) and when the hard disk returns from having previously been put to sleep mode.
05
0x05
Reallocated Sectors Count Count of reallocated sectors. The raw value represents a count of the bad sectors that have been found and remapped. Thus, the higher the attribute value, the more sectors the drive has had to reallocate. This value is primarily used as a metric of the life expectancy of the drive; a drive which has had any reallocations at all is significantly more likely to fail in the immediate months.
06
0x06
Read Channel Margin Margin of a channel while reading data. The function of this attribute is not specified.
07
0x07
Seek Error Rate (Vendor specific raw value.) Rate of seek errors of the magnetic heads. If there is a partial failure in the mechanical positioning system, then seek errors will arise. Such a failure may be due to numerous factors, such as damage to a servo, or thermal widening of the hard disk. The raw value has different structure for different vendors and is often not meaningful as a decimal number.
08
0x08
Seek Time Performance Average performance of seek operations of the magnetic heads. If this attribute is decreasing, it is a sign of problems in the mechanical subsystem.
09
0x09
Power-On Hours Count of hours in power-on state. The raw value of this attribute shows total count of hours (or minutes, or seconds, depending on manufacturer) in power-on state.

"By default, the total expected lifetime of a hard disk in perfect condition is defined as 5 years (running every day and night on all days). This is equal to 1825 days in 24/7 mode or 43800 hours."

On some pre-2005 drives, this raw value may advance erratically and/or "wrap around" (reset to zero periodically).

10
0x0A
Spin Retry Count Count of retry of spin start attempts. This attribute stores a total count of the spin start attempts to reach the fully operational speed (under the condition that the first attempt was unsuccessful). An increase of this attribute value is a sign of problems in the hard disk mechanical subsystem.
11
0x0B
Recalibration Retries or Calibration Retry Count This attribute indicates the count that recalibration was requested (under the condition that the first attempt was unsuccessful). An increase of this attribute value is a sign of problems in the hard disk mechanical subsystem.
12
0x0C
Power Cycle Count This attribute indicates the count of full hard disk power on/off cycles.
13
0x0D
Soft Read Error Rate Uncorrected read errors reported to the operating system.
22
0x16
Current Helium Level Specific to He8 drives from HGST. This value measures the helium inside of the drive specific to this manufacturer. It is a pre-fail attribute that trips once the drive detects that the internal environment is out of specification.
170
0xAA
Available Reserved Space See attribute E8.
171
0xAB
SSD Program Fail Count (Kingston) The total number of flash program operation failures since the drive was deployed. Identical to attribute 181.
172
0xAC
SSD Erase Fail Count (Kingston) Counts the number of flash erase failures. This attribute returns the total number of Flash erase operation failures since the drive was deployed. This attribute is identical to attribute 182.
173
0xAD
SSD Wear Leveling Count Counts the maximum worst erase count on any block.
174
0xAE
Unexpected Power Loss Count Also known as "Power-off Retract Count" per conventional HDD terminology. Raw value reports the number of unclean shutdowns, cumulative over the life of an SSD, where an "unclean shutdown" is the removal of power without STANDBY IMMEDIATE as the last command (regardless of PLI activity using capacitor power). Normalized value is always 100.
175
0xAF
Power Loss Protection Failure Last test result as microseconds to discharge cap, saturated at its maximum value. Also logs minutes since last test and lifetime number of tests. Raw value contains the following data:
  • Bytes 0-1: Last test result as microseconds to discharge cap, saturates at max value. Test result expected in range 25 <= result <= 5000000, lower indicates specific error code.
  • Bytes 2-3: Minutes since last test, saturates at max value.
  • Bytes 4-5: Lifetime number of tests, not incremented on power cycle, saturates at max value.

Normalized value is set to one on test failure or 11 if the capacitor has been tested in an excessive temperature condition, otherwise 100.

176
0xB0
Erase Fail Count S.M.A.R.T. parameter indicates a number of flash erase command failures.
177
0xB1
Wear Range Delta Delta between most-worn and least-worn Flash blocks. It describes how good/bad the wearleveling of the SSD works on a more technical way.
179
0xB3
Used Reserved Block Count Total "Pre-Fail" attribute used at least in Samsung devices.
180
0xB4
Unused Reserved Block Count Total "Pre-Fail" attribute used at least in HP devices.
181
0xB5
Program Fail Count Total or Non-4K Aligned Access Count Total number of Flash program operation failures since the drive was deployed.
Number of user data accesses (both reads and writes) where LBAs are not 4 KiB aligned (LBA % 8 != 0) or where size is not modulus 4 KiB (block count != 8), assuming logical block size (LBS) = 512 B.
182
0xB6
Erase Fail Count "Pre-Fail" Attribute used at least in Samsung devices.
183
0xB7
SATA Downshift Error Count or Runtime Bad Block Western Digital, Samsung or Seagate attribute: Either the number of downshifts of link speed (e.g. from 6Gbit/s to 3Gbit/s) or the total number of data blocks with detected, uncorrectable errors encountered during normal operation. Although degradation of this parameter can be an indicator of drive aging and/or potential electromechanical problems, it does not directly indicate imminent drive failure.
184
0xB8
End-to-End error / IOEDC This attribute is a part of Hewlett-Packard's SMART IV technology, as well as part of other vendors' IO Error Detection and Correction schemas, and it contains a count of parity errors which occur in the data path to the media via the drive's cache RAM.
185
0xB9
Head Stability Western Digital attribute.
186
0xBA
Induced Op-Vibration Detection Western Digital attribute.
187
0xBB
Reported Uncorrectable Errors The count of errors that could not be recovered using hardware ECC (see attribute 195).
188
0xBC
Command Timeout The count of aborted operations due to HDD timeout. Normally this attribute value should be equal to zero.
189
0xBD
High Fly Writes HDD manufacturers implement a flying height sensor that attempts to provide additional protections for write operations by detecting when a recording head is flying outside its normal operating range. If an unsafe fly height condition is encountered, the write process is stopped, and the information is rewritten or reallocated to a safe region of the hard drive. This attribute indicates the count of these errors detected over the lifetime of the drive.

This feature is implemented in most modern Seagate drives and some of Western Digital's drives, beginning with the WD Enterprise WDE18300 and WDE9180 Ultra2 SCSI hard drives, and will be included on all future WD Enterprise products.

190
0xBE
Temperature Difference or Airflow Temperature Value is equal to (100-temp. °C), allowing manufacturer to set a minimum threshold which corresponds to a maximum temperature. This also follows the convention of 100 being a best-case value and lower values being undesirable. However, some older drives may instead report raw Temperature (identical to 0xC2) or Temperature minus 50 here.
191
0xBF
G-sense Error Rate The count of errors resulting from externally induced shock and vibration.
192
0xC0
Power-off Retract Count, Emergency Retract Cycle Count (Fujitsu), or Unsafe Shutdown Count Number of power-off or emergency retract cycles.
193
0xC1
Load Cycle Count or Load/Unload Cycle Count (Fujitsu) Count of load/unload cycles into head landing zone position. Some drives use 225 (0xE1) for Load Cycle Count instead.

Western Digital rates their VelociRaptor drives for 600,000 load/unload cycles, and WD Green drives for 300,000 cycles; the latter ones are designed to unload heads often to conserve power. On the other hand, the WD3000GLFS (a desktop drive) is specified for only 50,000 load/unload cycles.

Some laptop drives and "green power" desktop drives are programmed to unload the heads whenever there has not been any activity for a short period, to save power. Operating systems often access the file system a few times a minute in the background, causing 100 or more load cycles per hour if the heads unload: the load cycle rating may be exceeded in less than a year. There are programs for most operating systems that disable the Advanced Power Management (APM) and Automatic acoustic management (AAM) features causing frequent load cycles.

194
0xC2
Temperature or Temperature Celsius Indicates the device temperature, if the appropriate sensor is fitted. Lowest byte of the raw value contains the exact temperature value (Celsius degrees).
195
0xC3
Hardware ECC Recovered (Vendor-specific raw value.) The raw value has different structure for different vendors and is often not meaningful as a decimal number.
196
0xC4
Reallocation Event Count Count of remap operations. The raw value of this attribute shows the total count of attempts to transfer data from reallocated sectors to a spare area. Both successful and unsuccessful attempts are counted.
197
0xC5
Current Pending Sector Count Count of "unstable" sectors (waiting to be remapped, because of unrecoverable read errors). If an unstable sector is subsequently read successfully, the sector is remapped and this value is decreased. Read errors on a sector will not remap the sector immediately (since the correct value cannot be read and so the value to remap is not known, and also it might become readable later); instead, the drive firmware remembers that the sector needs to be remapped, and will remap it the next time it's written.

However, some drives will not immediately remap such sectors when written; instead the drive will first attempt to write to the problem sector and if the write operation is successful then the sector will be marked good (in this case, the "Reallocation Event Count" (0xC4) will not be increased). This is a serious shortcoming, for if such a drive contains marginal sectors that consistently fail only after some time has passed following a successful write operation, then the drive will never remap these problem sectors.

198
0xC6
(Offline) Uncorrectable Sector Count The total count of uncorrectable errors when reading/writing a sector. A rise in the value of this attribute indicates defects of the disk surface and/or problems in the mechanical subsystem.
199
0xC7
UltraDMA CRC Error Count The count of errors in data transfer via the interface cable as determined by ICRC (Interface Cyclic Redundancy Check).
200
0xC8
Multi-Zone Error Rate The count of errors found when writing a sector. The higher the value, the worse the disk's mechanical condition is.
200
0xC8
Write Error Rate (Fujitsu) The total count of errors when writing a sector.
201
0xC9
Soft Read Error Rate or
TA Counter Detected
Count indicates the number of uncorrectable software read errors.
202
0xCA
Data Address Mark errors or
TA Counter Increased
Count of Data Address Mark errors (or vendor-specific).
203
0xCB
Run Out Cancel The number of errors caused by incorrect checksum during the error correction.
204
0xCC
Soft ECC Correction Count of errors corrected by the internal error correction software.
205
0xCD
Thermal Asperity Rate Count of errors due to high temperature.
206
0xCE
Flying Height Height of heads above the disk surface. If too low, head crash is more likely; if too high, read/write errors are more likely.
207
0xCF
Spin High Current Amount of surge current used to spin up the drive.
208
0xD0
Spin Buzz Count of buzz routines needed to spin up the drive due to insufficient power.
209
0xD1
Offline Seek Performance Drive's seek performance during its internal tests.
210
0xD2
Vibration During Write Found in Maxtor 6B200M0 200GB and Maxtor 2R015H1 15GB disks.
211
0xD3
Vibration During Write A recording of a vibration encountered during write operations.
212
0xD4
Shock During Write A recording of shock encountered during write operations.
220
0xDC
Disk Shift Distance the disk has shifted relative to the spindle (usually due to shock or temperature). Unit of measure is unknown.
221
0xDD
G-Sense Error Rate The count of errors resulting from externally induced shock and vibration.
222
0xDE
Loaded Hours Time spent operating under data load (movement of magnetic head armature).
223
0xDF
Load/Unload Retry Count Count of times head changes position.
224
0xE0
Load Friction Resistance caused by friction in mechanical parts while operating.
225
0xE1
Load/Unload Cycle Count Total count of load cycles Some drives use 193 (0xC1) for Load Cycle Count instead. See Description for 193 for significance of this number.
226
0xE2
Load 'In'-time Total time of loading on the magnetic heads actuator (time not spent in parking area).
227
0xE3
Torque Amplification Count Count of attempts to compensate for platter speed variations.
228
0xE4
Power-Off Retract Cycle The number of power-off cycles which are counted whenever there is a "retract event" and the heads are loaded off of the media such as when the machine is powered down, put to sleep, or is idle.
230
0xE6
GMR Head Amplitude (magnetic HDDs), Drive Life Protection Status (SSDs) Amplitude of "thrashing" (repetitive head moving motions between operations).

In solid-state drives, indicates whether usage trajectory is outpacing the expected life curve

231
0xE7
Life Left (SSDs) or Temperature Indicates the approximate SSD life left, in terms of program/erase cycles or available reserved blocks. A normalized value of 100 represents a new drive, with a threshold value at 10 indicating a need for replacement. A value of 0 may mean that the drive is operating in read-only mode to allow data recovery.

Previously (pre-2010) occasionally used for Drive Temperature (more typically reported at 0xC2).

232
0xE8
Endurance Remaining or Available Reserved Space Number of physical erase cycles completed on the SSD as a percentage of the maximum physical erase cycles the drive is designed to endure.

Intel SSDs report the available reserved space as a percentage of the initial reserved space.

233
0xE9
Media Wearout Indicator (SSDs) or Power-On Hours Intel SSDs report a normalized value from 100, a new drive, to a minimum of 1. It decreases while the NAND erase cycles increase from 0 to the maximum-rated cycles.

Previously (pre-2010) occasionally used for Power-On Hours (more typically reported in 0x09).

234
0xEA
Average erase count AND Maximum Erase Count Decoded as: byte 0-1-2 = average erase count (big endian) and byte 3-4-5 = max erase count (big endian).
235
0xEB
Good Block Count AND System(Free) Block Count Decoded as: byte 0-1-2 = good block count (big endian) and byte 3-4 = system (free) block count.
240
0xF0
Head Flying Hours or 'Transfer Error Rate' (Fujitsu) Time spent during the positioning of the drive heads. Some Fujitsu drives report the count of link resets during a data transfer.
241
0xF1
Total LBAs Written Total count of LBAs written.
242
0xF2
Total LBAs Read Total count of LBAs read.
Some S.M.A.R.T. utilities will report a negative number for the raw value since in reality it has 48 bits rather than 32.
243
0xF3
Total LBAs Written Expanded The upper 5 bytes of the 12-byte total number of LBAs written to the device. The lower 7 byte value is located at attribute 0xF1.
244
0xF4
Total LBAs Read Expanded The upper 5 bytes of the 12-byte total number of LBAs read from the device. The lower 7 byte value is located at attribute 0xF2.
249
0xF9
NAND Writes (1GiB) Total NAND Writes. Raw value reports the number of writes to NAND in 1 GB increments.
250
0xFA
Read Error Retry Rate Count of errors while reading from a disk.
251
0xFB
Minimum Spares Remaining The Minimum Spares Remaining attribute indicates the number of remaining spare blocks as a percentage of the total number of spare blocks available.
252
0xFC
Newly Added Bad Flash Block The Newly Added Bad Flash Block attribute indicates the total number of bad flash blocks the drive detected since it was first initialized in manufacturing.
254
0xFE
Free Fall Protection Count of "Free Fall Events" detected.

The above table is taken from Wikipedia.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

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