Top 4 software to help check your computer hard drive simply

The hard drive is one of the extremely important parts in the computer. Therefore, regularly checking the hard drive to promptly detect and handle problems is essential. If you don't know how to check your computer's hard drive, the article below will help you check the status of your hard drive easily. Let's find out more with TipsMake now!

What are SSD and HDD hard drives?

SSD hard drive is abbreviated from Solid State Drive , this term means solid state hard drive. This type of hard drive will be much faster than an HDD.

HDD is the abbreviation for Hard Disk Drive, meaning traditional hard drive. This type of hard drive was previously used extremely commonly. HDD hard drives are slower than SSD hard drives.

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Why should you check your hard drive?

After a long period of use, the hard drive will store a lot of junk files, files that are no longer in use or may contain viruses that are harmful to the computer's hard drive. Because of that, hard drives need to be checked regularly to promptly detect and handle problems.

At the same time, if the hard drive is used for a long time, it may affect the quality and lifespan of the hard drive. So checking the hard drive will help overcome this problem and help users promptly replace the hard drive with a new one.

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4 software to check if your computer's hard drive is using an SSD or HDD

Currently, there are many software to support users in checking laptop hard drives. You can refer to the 4 software below to check your computer's hard drive! 

Check with Defragment and Optimize Drives

To check your hard drive with Defragment and Optimize Drives software, follow these steps:

Step 1: Press the Windows + S key combination on the keyboard and type the word ' defragment '. Then, select Defragment and Optimize Drives .

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Step 2: At this point, a new window will appear on the screen. In the Media type box:

1. The hard drive that is an SSD will have the words ' Solid state drive ' written on it.
2. The hard drive that is an HDDD will have the words ' Hard disk drive ' written on it.

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Check using Device Manager

Steps:

Step 1: Press the Windows + S key combination on the keyboard and type ' device '. Then, select Device Manager .

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Step 2: Double click on Disk drivers , you will now be able to see the name of the hard drive your computer is using.

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Step 3: Next, search for that hard drive name on Google and you will know the detailed information.

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Test using PowerShell

To check your hard drive using PowerShell, follow these steps:

Step 1: Press the Windows + S key combination on the keyboard and type ' powershell '. Then, move your mouse to the Window PowerShell section and right-click Run as administrator .

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Step 2: Next, type the get-physicaldisk command into the software.

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In the MediaType column, you will be able to read whether the hard drive of the computer you are using is SSD or HDD.

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Test using Optimize Drives in the Explorer screen

Steps:

Step 1: Press the Windows + E key combination on the keyboard to open File Explorer .

Step 2: Right-click any hard drive on the screen and select Properties .

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Step 3: In the next window, select Tools and click Optimize .

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Step 4: At this time, the Optimize Drives window will appear, in the Media type column you can read information about the type of hard drive your computer is using.

1. Solid state drive is an SSD.
2. Hard disk drive is an HDD drive.

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6 ways to check hard drive status on Windows 10

There are many ways to check the status of your computer's hard drive. Below are 6 ways to check your hard drive that you can easily apply.

Check your computer's hard drive in BIOS

For computers with modern mainboards, you can use the BIOS to check the computer's hard drive. 

To do this, restart your computer and press the Delete, F2, F12 key or the boot screen key to access the system BIOS.

After accessing the BIOS, depending on the main type of the machine, there will be different ways to do it.

For example, for the main MSI Mortar WiFi B550M, in the system BIOS, you go to Settings > Advanced > NVME self-test to check the general status of the NVMe drive.

The same goes for Dell and HP laptops, you can completely check the hard drive by accessing the BIOS and searching for the Diagnostics option .

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Test your computer's hard drive by optimizing and defragmenting the hard drive

Currently, SSD hard drives are gradually replacing SATA hard drives. However, SATA hard drives are still being used to store pictures, videos and many other data. 

Although SSD drives do not need to be defragmented, they still need to be optimized. When you notice that your computer's hard drive has become slower, check to see how fragmented it is.

On a computer with Windows 10 operating system, perform the following steps:

1. Step 1: Enter the word ' defrag ' into the Search box next to the Start menu .
2. Step 2: Then, click Defragment and Optimize Drives > Select the drive to check > Click the Analyze button .  

If Windows detects fragmentation, click the Optimize button to optimize the drive. In addition to the built-in Windows tool, you can also use the Defraggler application to check and reduce hard drive fragmentation. 

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Use the manufacturer's tools to check your computer's hard drive

Most hard drive manufacturers will provide users with free tools to assist in testing hard drives. To determine which manufacturer the hard drive you are using is from, proceed as follows:

Step 1: Enter the keyword Device Manager in the Search box on the side of the Start menu > Select Device Manager .

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Step 2: In the Device Manager window, select Disk drives to view and record the parameters of the hard drive model you are using.

Step 3: Enter that model number into Google to be able to search for the manufacturer of that hard drive. 

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Step 4: Visit the manufacturer's support page and search for suitable hard drive utilities.

Some major hard drive manufacturer websites in the world are:

1. Western Digital (https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?lang=en&i).
2. Samsung (https://www.samsung.com/us/support/).
3. Seagate (https://www.seagate.com/as/en/support/downloads/seatools/).
4. Adata (https://www.adata.com/us/support/consumer?tab=downloads).

The tools offered by the manufacturer will be able to help you check your hard drive quickly and effectively.

Use the Windows CHKDSK tool to check your computer's hard drive

Windows' CHKDSK tool is a tool that has integrated hard drive scanning support. From there, it will be easy to find system errors and harmful components in the hard drive. The tool will then notify you if the drive is having problems.

Using CHKDSK is extremely simple, you just need to follow these steps:

Step 1: Right-click on the hard drive partition you want to check and click Properties in the menu.

Step 2: In the displayed dialog box, select the Tools tab and click the Check now button to start checking.

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Step 3: A dialog box will be displayed with 2 options to scan and fix errors. At the same time, you can also choose both of the above options to check. Next, click the Start button to check and receive notifications about problems the hard drive is experiencing.

Use WMIC to check your computer's hard drive

WMIC is a tool that allows users to perform administrative operations, including checking hard drives. This tool uses the hard drive's self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology to check the status. After that, basic conclusions will be drawn. This is a built-in tool on Windows, so it can be used quickly.

To check the status of the hard drive, do the following:

Step 1: Press the Windows + R key combination on the keyboard to open the Run dialog box.

Step 2: Enter ' cmd ' in the empty box and then click the OK button . 

Step 3: In the command line display window, enter the command ' wmic diskdrive get status ' and press the Enter button to finish the command. At this point, you will be able to see the current status of the hard drive after only a short time.

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Check your computer's hard drive with a third-party hard drive health checker

Checking your computer's hard drive using a third-party tool is also a way you can do it. These tools are often equipped with SMART features, making it easy to fetch data. These tools will display more detailed information, not just good or bad status.

When it comes to third-party tools, CrystalDiskInfo is a leader. This is an extremely simple tool but its features are very powerful. Therefore, it will be able to tell you all information related to the hard drive, such as: Temperature, hard disk type, health status, features and attributes, turnaround time, read error rate /take note,…

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After you have installed CrystalDiskInfo, start the tool. At this time, the main interface will display all information about the hard drive. Furthermore, this tool also supports checking the status of the default hard drive every 10 minutes and will give warnings when problems are detected.

In addition to the CrystalDiskInfo tool, you can also use other tools such as Hard Disk Sentinel or HDDScan. These tools are designed with a lot of additional features. 

Epilogue

Regularly checking your hard drive not only helps ensure your computer is performing at its best, but is also a way to protect your computer. Hopefully the above information can help you know how to check your hard drive quickly and effectively. Thank you for reading the article.

Lesley Montoya

Update 10 October 2023