To check SSD health on Windows 11, open Settings › System › Storage › Advanced storage settings › Disks & volumes, select the drive and choose Properties: NVMe drives show estimated remaining life and available spare. For detail, run Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter in an administrator PowerShell, or read the SMART table in CrystalDiskInfo.
What is SMART, and what does it measure?
Every modern SSD keeps a log about itself called SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology): how much of its rated write endurance is used, how many spare blocks are left, how many errors it could not correct, how many hours it has run. Windows, macOS and every disk utility read the same log; they differ only in how much of it they show.
NVMe drives, the M.2 sticks in most recent business laptops, report a short, standardised health log. SATA SSDs, 2.5-inch or M.2, report numbered attributes whose names vary by manufacturer. The checks below cover both.
How do you check SSD health in Windows?
Five ways, quickest first. The first four are built into Windows.
- Open the Windows health panel. On Windows 11 go to Settings › System › Storage › Advanced storage settings › Disks & volumes, select the SSD and choose Properties. Under Drive health, an NVMe drive shows estimated remaining life, available spare and temperature. SATA drives and Windows 10 may not show it; use the next steps.
- Check the overall status in PowerShell. Open PowerShell and run:
HealthStatus should read Healthy and OperationalStatus OK. Size, in bytes, confirms the capacity on your invoice.Get-PhysicalDisk | Select-Object FriendlyName, MediaType, Size, HealthStatus, OperationalStatus - Read the wear and error counters. Open PowerShell as administrator and run:
Wear is the percentage of rated endurance used; 0 is new. An empty field means the driver does not report that counter, not that it is zero.Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter | Select-Object DeviceId, Wear, Temperature, PowerOnHours, ReadErrorsUncorrected, WriteErrorsUncorrected - Get a quick SMART pass or fail. In Command Prompt,
wmic diskdrive get model,statusreturns OK for a healthy drive and Pred Fail when SMART predicts a failure. WMIC is deprecated and missing from many newer Windows 11 installations; the PowerShell equivalent isGet-CimInstance Win32_DiskDrive | Select-Object Model, Status. - Read the full SMART table. A free reader such as CrystalDiskInfo, or the drive maker's utility, lists every attribute with a Good, Caution or Bad label. Maker utilities may not support the OEM drives fitted in business laptops; a generic SMART reader handles them all.
Which SSD health numbers matter?
A SMART table can run to thirty lines. Six decide almost every case:
| Number | What it means | Healthy | Replace or reject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health status / Critical Warning | The drive's own alarm flag | Healthy, or 0 | Warning, Unhealthy, or any non-zero value |
| Percentage Used (wear) | Rated write endurance used (some SATA drives count down from 100) | Low; under about 50% leaves most of the rated life | 90% or more |
| Available Spare | Reserve blocks left to replace worn ones | Close to 100% | At or below the drive's own Available Spare Threshold |
| Media and data integrity errors | Data the drive could not read back correctly | 0 | Any count above 0, especially if it grows |
| Reallocated sectors | Blocks retired and replaced (SATA attribute 05) | 0, or a small number that never changes | A count that rises between two checks |
| Power-on hours | Time switched on: age, not health | Context only | Never a reason on its own |
Percentage Used can pass 100; the drive may keep working, but it has outlived its rated endurance. Hours only give context: an office laptop used eight hours a day, about 250 days a year, for four years logs roughly 8,000 hours. High hours with low wear means gentle use; low hours with high wear deserves a closer look.
How do you check SSD health on a Mac?
Open Disk Utility, choose View › Show All Devices, and select the physical drive at the top of the sidebar. The S.M.A.R.T. Status line reads Verified for a healthy drive and Failing for one that should be replaced. In Terminal, diskutil info disk0 | grep SMART gives the same answer.
For the full log, install the open-source smartmontools package (with Homebrew: brew install smartmontools) and run sudo smartctl -a disk0. It prints the same Percentage Used, Available Spare and error counts as above, and it also runs on Windows and Linux, so it reads a mixed lot the same way.
When should a used SSD be replaced?
There is no industry pass mark, so treat these as working rules rather than a standard:
- Keep it: status Healthy, no critical warning, zero errors, spare near 100%, wear well under half.
- Keep it, but price it in: wear between roughly 50% and 90% with no errors. It works, with less endurance left.
- Replace it: any critical warning, available spare at or below its threshold, wear of 90% or more, media or uncorrectable errors above zero, or reallocated sectors that grow between two checks.
If the laptop is in use, back it up first: an SSD that has started logging errors can fail with little further warning. The battery is the other part that wears; see how to check laptop battery health.
For bulk buyers: checking a whole batch
One laptop takes five minutes; fifty take an afternoon unless you script it.
Before you pay, ask for each unit's drive health against its serial number: status, wear and error counts, not "tested OK". After delivery, check it yourself while the warranty runs. Paste this into an administrator PowerShell window on each laptop, with a USB stick plugged in; it adds one line per laptop to one CSV, keyed by BIOS serial number:
$sn = (Get-CimInstance Win32_BIOS).SerialNumber
Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter |
Select-Object @{n='Serial';e={$sn}}, DeviceId, Wear, PowerOnHours, ReadErrorsUncorrected, WriteErrorsUncorrected, Temperature |
Export-Csv -Path "E:\ssd-report.csv" -Append -NoTypeInformation
Change E: to your stick's letter. Pasting, rather than running a saved script, avoids execution-policy prompts. Sort the sheet by Wear and the error columns: problem units rise to the top, and the serial is what a warranty claim needs. Where counters come back empty, use smartctl or CrystalDiskInfo on that unit.
How UAEPC tests every drive
Our warranty page lists nine quality-control checks every unit passes before it leaves the Sharjah warehouse; the fifth is an SSD/HDD SMART scan, SMART status plus a bad-sector scan. Our Grade A+ standard adds read and write speed validation and states the rule: a unit with drive or memory errors of any kind leaves the order, never downgraded and sold anyway. Worn drives are swapped before shipping (see the 60-day warranty guide), and drives are wiped after testing.
Every order carries a 60-day hardware warranty; the minimum order is 10 units per product type. See the laptop catalogue, the updated price list, or send a quote request.
Send a list, get a proforma within 24 working hours
Ten units minimum per product type, grade A+ only, price fixed for three days.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check SSD health in Windows 11 without installing anything?
Go to Settings › System › Storage › Advanced storage settings › Disks & volumes, select the drive and choose Properties. For the counters behind it, run Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter in an administrator PowerShell window.
What is a good SSD health percentage?
There is no official pass mark. As a working rule, a used laptop SSD with no errors and wear under about 50 percent has most of its rated life left. At 90 percent wear or more, or with any uncorrectable errors, plan to replace it. Tools that show one health figure usually mean 100 minus the wear.
What does Percentage Used mean on an NVMe SSD?
It is the drive's own estimate of how much of its rated write endurance has been consumed. It starts at 0 on a new drive and can go past 100; beyond 100 the drive may still work, but it has exceeded the endurance its maker designed it for.
Is a CrystalDiskInfo "Caution" a reason to reject a used laptop?
Not automatically. Caution means one SMART value crossed the tool's warning line, so check which. Reallocated, pending or uncorrectable sectors, or low available spare, are reasons to replace the drive; in a bulk order, ask the seller to swap it before shipping.
Can I check SSD health on a Mac?
Yes. Disk Utility shows S.M.A.R.T. Status as Verified or Failing for the physical drive. For wear and error counts, install smartmontools and run sudo smartctl -a disk0.
Does UAEPC check the SSD in every laptop it sells?
Yes. Every unit gets a SMART status read and a bad-sector scan before it leaves the Sharjah warehouse. A unit with drive errors of any kind is removed from the order, and every order carries a 60-day hardware warranty.
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Before you pay any UAE supplier — ours included — run the four public licence checks. Our numbers are published for exactly that: verify UAEPC (licences & TRN).