Hard drives are unfortunately not eternal life. And you can sometimes notice that after a few years of loyal employment from the hardware. It may make noises, but you will notice how slow your computer has become. In Windows 10, you can check the health of your hard drive.
It may be time to say goodbye to that loyal buddy. But not before you have checked how exactly he is.
With the older hard disks (the hdd), which have moving parts, it can happen that the disk makes noise over time. The parts will then become worn. This is a normal process, one you cannot prevent. The magnetic sectors can also be damaged, unfortunately.
Do you have an SSD in your computer or laptop? Then you will not hear such noises. But the solid states drives do have their own problems. The cells in which data is stored will decay over time. Fortunately, this is a long process, so you won’t notice it right after you just took your computer out of the box (or else you’ll have to go back to the store). In general, an SSD lasts longer than an HDD.
If there are no other violent things (such as writing that get very hot or have physical damage), then you have to take into account that your hard drive will eventually die. But you can prepare, for example by always making a backup.
Check hard drive health
This way you can enjoy S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology). That is a system that keeps an eye on your hard disk and checks whether nothing is wrong. The computer will automatically inform you of any or potential problems, so you can replace your hard drive and copy the data before it is too late.
Windows 10 also offers another option that allows you to see how your hard drive is doing. You need the command prompt for that. Open the start menu and type in cmd. Now open the Command Prompt on screen and type in the following line.
wmic diskdrive get model, status
You will now see one of the two messages. If Pred Fail appears on the screen, your hard disk will not be long. If an OK comes up, Windows 10 thinks that everything is still functioning properly.
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