Know How to Check Hard Disk Health in Windows 10, 8, 7 OS

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Written By Chirag Arora
Anuraag Singh
Approved By Anuraag Singh  
Published On September 22nd, 2022
Reading Time 6 Minutes Reading

Power, Motherboard, Hard Drive, RAM, and Central Processor are the five most essential things to make computer work normally. Of the five, the hard disk drive is the most important object to use a computer because when this component starts failing, all type of funny things begins. You need a way to check hard disk health, before getting an error.

Hence, regular health checkup of the hard drive is necessary for a smooth and uninterrupted work-flow. Today, we will show you some simple hacks via which you can check the current health status of your hard drive expeditiously. So, let’s get started to check hard disk health and forget to get data recovery actions!

How to Monitor the Health of Hard Drive?

Have you ever checked the health status of your hard drive? If no then, check it now with the help of following techniques. You can perform the below-mentioned steps on Windows 10, 8, 7 and below versions to check hard disk health. Check out these quick links:

  1. Check Hard Disk Health Using Windows CHKDSK Utility
  2. Easily Check Hard Disk Health Using WMIC Command on CMD

Technique 1. Check Hard Disk Health Using Windows CHKDSK Tool

CHKDKS is one of the most convenient ways to check computer hard drives’ health. It is a Windows in-built utility to scan and fix the hard drive partitions for various logical and file system errors along with bad sectors. Windows Explorer and Command Prompt both can run CHKDSK. Below is how to use chkdsk to check hard disk health:

  1. First of all, select the drive partition for which you want to check for errors and hit a right-click on it. Select Properties and click on Tools >> Check.check disk health
  2. Check Disk window will prompt now with two different options; Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. Check both options to fix all errors and bad sectors. Click Start.check disk health in windows 10
  3. The drive scanning process will begin after that and if there will be any issues with the selected drive then, it will list them all. Otherwise, if the hard drive is healthy then, you will get ‘Windows successfully scanned. No errors found’ prompt. Click Close.
    check hard disk health without os

Note: CHKDSK is a very basic utility that only focuses on searching the system issues and bad sectors. If there will be any major issue then, it can inform you only but cannot fix it.

Quick Tips: – Find the best and secure way to recover deleted photos from your computer hard disk.

Technique 2. Check Hard Disk Health Using WMIC Command on CMD

Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC) is a scripting and command-line interface. It simplifies Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and computer management using WMI. It works on S.M.A.R.T feature, which means Self-Monitoring, Analysis, Reporting, and Technology. Using this, individuals can perform multiple administrative activities such as check hard disk health, finding computer model, serial number etc. In order to use this for checking the health of your hard drive, follow the instructions below:

  • Press Window + R keys simultaneously to open Run dialog box. Here, type cmd and click OK.
    check external hard disk health in windows 7
  • Now, type wmic and hit the Enter button
  • Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) interface will be ready now. Execute the following command:
    diskdrive get status
  • After this, hit the Enter button and the current status of your hard drive will be displayed in the screen.
    disk-health

Note: WMIC is also a very basic command that can provide only a few information about the actual status of the hard drive.

Resolve the Detected Issues and Speed Up Computer Hard Drive?

If there are any serious issues diagnosed by the techniques mentioned above to check hard disk health in Windows 10, 8, 7 etc. Then, they can be resolved easily using the following solutions. Follow the quick links listed here:

  1. Fix Hard Disk Error by Defragmenting Hard Disk
  2. Prevent HDD from Overheat
  3. Update Disk Drivers to Fix Hard Disk Error

Solution 1. Defragment Hard Disk to Fix Hard Disk Error

In order to run a computer at its best, it is essential to defragment or consolidate the files on a computer’s hard drive. This is so because defragmenting a hard drive improves the system performance and eliminate white space to make hard drive healthy. Follow the steps below to defragment your hard drive:

  • Select and right-click on your hard disk. Select Properties.
  • Click on Tools and go to Optimize and defragment the drive section. Click on Optimise button.
    check health disk
  • From Optimize Drives window, select the desired or all drives and click on Optimise. Now, you need to give the admin permission for defragmentation.
    check disk error

Solution 2. Prevent HDD from Overheat

Overheating is one such common issue that computer users often face with their hard drives. Improper ventilation or interrupted flow of air can be the main cause of overheated hard drive. Hence, it is important for computer users to recognize and prevent the hard drive from overheating. The best way to prevent system HDD from overheating is defragmentation. In order to monitor the temperature of your computer, hard drive, and processor, you can use the Open Hardware Monitor app.
hard drive error

Solution 3. Update Disk Drivers to Fix Hard Disk Error

Computer Drivers play an important role when it comes to optimizing the hard disk. So, make sure the drivers of your hard disk drive are up-to-date as it will improve the hard drive and OS interaction. In addition, it can eliminate the bugs that are causing several issues. Follow the steps below to check if your computer drivers are updated:

  • Click on Start and open Device Manager.
  • Expand the category and choose the device for which you want to update the drivers
  • Hit a right-click on the device and click on Update Driver.
    hard drive health error

What If the Data Has Been Lost?

If there are some serious issues with your hard drive like frequent freezes, sluggish computer, blue screen of death error, corrupted data, bad sectors, strange noise, etc., then, stop using it right now. It is so because performing any read/ write operation on HDD while encountering such issues, can lead you to permanent data loss.

If in case you have already lost your data from hard drive due to any of these issues then, Hard Disk Recovery Wizard is the only solution left for you. It is a powerful and completely secure tool to recover formatted, corrupted or deleted data from any internal as well as external hard disk drive. Using this, you can recover all your lost data without any technical assistance in a few simple clicks.

Above All

The hard drive is the memory of a computer where all the crucial user information gets stored and when its files become inaccessible, it seems like a major catastrophe. Hence, it is essential to check the health of the hard drive frequently. However, the main question is HOW? Considering this question in mind, we have come up with this technical guide. Here, we have demonstrated all the simple possible techniques to answer ‘how to check hard disk health’ query. Despite this, we have also discussed some of the best techniques to overcome recognized hard disk issues.

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By Chirag Arora

Having around 9+ years of experience in technical writing. Knows about the core technical areas. Also, provides easy and reliable solutions to resolve difficulties faced by users while working with different platforms.