How to check hard drive status with SMART

The hard drive uses SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology - Self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology) to evaluate its own reliability and determine whether it has any problems. You can see SMART data and see if it starts to generate problems.

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The hard drive does not exist forever and you often cannot realize that your hard drive is about to fail. Fortunately, most modern drives support SMART, so at least users can perform some basic self-monitoring steps. However, Windows does not have a built-in SMART data display tool for hard drives. You can view SMART status from Command Prompt, but to really see this information, you will need to install third-party applications. Now let's look at the details in the following article!

Check SMART status with CrystalDiskInfo

CrystalDiskInfo (free) is an easy-to-use open source program that can display details of SMART status reported on your hard drive. You can download the portable version if you want.

When you launch CrystalDiskInfo, you will find this is a fairly simple application. This tool mainly shows SMART status information about your hard drive. If everything works normally, you will see the 'Good' status displayed. In the picture below, right below the menu bar, you can see that all three drives in the system are taken as an example of " Good " status and you can even see the temperature of each drive. Other states you may see include " Bad " (usually indicating a dead or nearly dead drive), " Caution " (denoting a drive that you should consider backing up and replacing) and " Unknown " "(only means that SMART information cannot be obtained).

You can also see a list of detailed information about each drive, but unless you are a professional or you are troubleshooting something very specific, that may not mean much to you. However, if you are interested, the Wikipedia page for SMART will provide a list of these properties, along with a specific explanation for each attribute.

There is really not much information about the application, but there is another remarkable feature indicated. If you are particularly concerned about the status of the drive, you can install CrystalDiskInfo to get started with Windows and run it as a background application. While it is running this way, CrystalDiskInfo sends a notification to alert you, if the SMART state has any changes. Just open the ' Function ' menu and turn on the ' Resident ' and ' Startup ' options.

Check SMART status at Command Prompt

You can also view SMART status from Windows Command Prompt. To open the Command Prompt, click Start, type ' Command Prompt ,' and then press Enter .

At Command Prompt, enter (or copy and paste) the following command, then press Enter :

 wmic diskdrive get status 

If everything works normally, you'll see the ' OK ' status displayed for each hard drive on your system. Other states, such as ' Bad ' , ' Caution ' or ' Unknown ' , can indicate problems with your drive or error accessing SMART information.

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Help if dead hard drive

If the SMART state indicates that your hard drive has errors, it doesn't necessarily mean that your hard drive will have problems right away. However, if there is a SMART error, assume that your hard drive is going to be broken is not a bad idea. A complete collapse can come in a few minutes, a few months, or - in some cases - even a few years. However, no matter how long it lasts, you should not trust the faulty hard drive containing your important data.

1. Fix 'hard drive' death hard drive

Make sure you have up-to-date backups of all files stored on another medium, such as an external hard drive or optical drive. Obviously, this is good advice whether you know the SMART state of the drive or not. Problems, including drive errors, can occur at any time and without any warning. After backing up the files properly, you should consider replacing your hard drive as soon as possible. You simply can't trust a hard drive that doesn't pass the SMART test. Even if your hard drive isn't completely dead, it can damage parts of the data. You can also consider using the Chkdsk tool in Windows to diagnose and fix any related issues that it can find.

Of course, the hardware is not perfect and the hard drive may fail without any SMART alerts. However, in some cases, SMART can give you some warnings before your hard drive has problems.

See more:

1. 6 ways to fix Windows computer laptop failed to boot
2. Use DiskPart to format and clean up your removable hard drive on Windows 10
3. How to regain access to the hard drive, fix errors that cannot open the hard drive