5 ways to check if the hard drive is SSD or HDD on Windows computer

Compared to Hard Disk Drive - HDD, Solid State Drive (SSD) is much faster and more efficient. SSDs are often used to store operating systems, helping to reduce startup and application running times.

1. How to check SSD or HDD with Task Manager

Task Manager is a system management tool that allows users to view/manage processes and applications running on the Windows operating system. It includes information about Windows processes as well as other services.

IT professionals can use this information to detect and identify unusual software, which may be malware or unauthorized software. Task Manager allows administrators to terminate processes or applications, adjust processing priorities, and customize process relationships for optimal performance.

Additionally, Task Manager is a system monitoring tool. It displays basic performance information and graphical data about CPU, swap-file and memory usage. In newer versions of Task Manager, it displays detailed information about disk and network usage. IT professionals can use Task Manager to test and quickly identify performance and stability issues before implementing troubleshooting or security tools.

Besides, you can see if the hard drive on your computer is SSD or HDD using Task Manager as follows:

Step 1: Open Task Manager by right-clicking on the task bar > selecting Task Manager

Step 2: If the screen you get looks like the following, click More details in the lower left corner to switch to full view.

Step 3: Select the Performance tab.

Step 4: Select the Disk section , look down at the bottom right, find Type , you will know the type of computer drive you are using: SSD or HDD.

2. Check if the hard drive is SSD or HDD using PowerShell

With PowerShell, you only need one command to check the SSD hard drive on your computer, see if the computer is using an SSD, HDD or both, as follows:

Step 1: Open PowerShell with admin rights: enter PowerShell  in the search box > right-click on the result and select  Run as Administrator.

Step 2: In the PowerShell window, enter the following command and press Enter :

Get-PhysicalDisk

Step 3: In the command results, look for Media Type, you will see the type of hard drive you are using. As the results below show, the machine is using both SSD and HDD .

3. Check the SSD hard drive in use using Defragment and Optimize Drive

The Defragmentation tool in Windows 10 is often used to defragment drives. As part of Windows 10, the Defragment tool provides a lot of information about all physical drives on the system. It's possible to use that information to find out if you have SDD.

Step 1: First, enter Defragment and Optimize Drive in the search box and open it.

Note: You can also access the Defragment and Optimize Drive tool in the following way:

1. .
2. Navigate to the This PC folder .
3. Right-click the drive you want and select Properties from the context menu.
4. Switch to the Tools tab and click the Optimize button under Optimize and defragment drive .

Step 2: As soon as the Defragment tool is opened, you will see all your partitions on the main screen. If you look at the Media Type section, you will know whether your hard drive is SSD or HDD. If there is an SSD, the tool will list it as Solid State Drive . A typical mechanical hard drive will be listed as a Hard Disk Drive .

In the image above, there are two drives: SSD for Windows installation and HDD for regular storage, the Defragment and Optimize Drives tool is showing both drives.

Once you've verified whether you have an SSD or not, just close the window. Don't worry about fragmentation. Windows will automatically defragment the drive weekly or monthly.

4. Use Speccy (third-party software)

Speccy is a simple, free third-party tool that displays a lot of information related to all system hardware such as CPU, hard drive, motherboard, peripherals, network cards, etc.

Step 1: Download Speccy here. Once downloaded, install and open Speccy using the shortcut or Start menu.

Step 2: After opening Speccy, select Storage on the left panel. On the control panel, the right side of Speccy will list all the hard drives. If there is an SSD in the system, Speccy will add the '(SSD)' tag next to the hard drive name. As can be seen in the image below, the SSD has this tag and the HDD does not.

5. Use Windows System Information

The Windows System Information tool is a great tool for resolving hardware conflicts as well as getting basic information about each component of your computer. The Windows System Information tool is a built-in Windows tool, available in all Windows versions including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

Step 1: To open the System Information tool , go to Run > msinfo32 .

Step 2: A new window will open. You need to expand Components > Storage > Disks from the menu tree on the left.

Step 3: The right-hand panel will provide you with detailed information about each hard drive attached to the system. The information doesn't have any titles so you'll need to learn the details about each hard drive carefully.

All work is completed!

Above are 5 ways to check if your computer is using an SSD or HDD. If you want to know more information about your computer system, try checking your computer configuration with the article that TipsMake guided. You can also check the hard drive status, view the hard drive temperature to have a more reasonable way to use the hard drive.

If there is another method to know whether the hard drive you are using is SSD or HDD, please share with us and other readers in the comments section below.

Good luck!

David Pac

Update 05 August 2024