Step by step
Back up important files first
If you already suspect a problem, copy your most important files to another drive before running any check. A failing drive can stop working at any time.
Open Disk Health in the app
Start FileFix Ultimate and open Disk Health. The app lists the drives Windows reports, with their type, size and connection.
Read the status badge
Each drive shows Healthy, Needs attention or Unknown, always with an icon and text. Unknown means Windows did not expose the value, not that the drive is fine.
Look at the key indicators
Check reallocated and pending sectors for hard drives, remaining life (percentage used) for SSDs, temperature and the number of read or media errors.
Compare with Windows' own tools
In Settings > System > Storage > Disks & volumes, Windows 11 shows estimated remaining life and temperature for many SSDs. Use it as a second opinion.
Act on warnings
If a drive needs attention, back up now and plan to replace it. If it clicks or disappears, stop using it and contact a professional service.
What SMART is
SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a set of counters that drives keep about their own condition: sectors that had to be replaced, read errors, power-on hours, temperature and, for SSDs, how much of their rated write endurance has been used.
Windows does not expose every SMART value for every drive. USB enclosures and some RAID controllers hide them completely. FileFix Ultimate shows what Windows makes available and marks the rest as Unknown.
Warning signs on hard drives
A growing number of reallocated sectors, pending sectors or uncorrectable errors means the disk surface is degrading. One or two may stay stable for years, but numbers that rise from week to week are a strong signal to replace the drive.
Clicking or grinding sounds are a mechanical problem. Do not run long scans on such a drive; every hour of use increases the risk of losing everything.
Warning signs on SSDs
SSDs wear out by writes. The "percentage used" value estimates how much of the rated endurance has been consumed; once it passes the rated value the drive may still work, but plan a replacement. Media errors and a falling count of spare blocks are more urgent.
SSDs often fail suddenly rather than gradually. Regular backups matter more than any health indicator.
Windows tools you can use as well
In PowerShell, Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter shows temperature, wear and error counters for many drives. The command chkdsk /scan checks the file system without changing it. Do not run chkdsk /f or /r on a drive you still need to recover data from: those options write to the disk.
Drive makers such as Samsung, WD, Seagate and Crucial offer their own tools with vendor-specific values and firmware updates. They are useful for a second opinion, but back up your files before updating firmware.
What a health check cannot tell you
A Healthy badge means the indicators Windows reported are within normal ranges. It is not a promise that the drive will keep working. Drives can fail without warning, especially after drops, power surges or overheating.
Keep at least one backup of important files on a separate drive or cloud service, and test that you can restore from it.
Quick checklist
- Back up before running any diagnostics
- Treat Unknown as "not reported", not as healthy
- Watch for rising reallocated or pending sectors
- Replace SSDs with high wear or media errors
- Stop using drives that click, grind or disconnect