The fastest way to check SSD health on Windows 11 is to run Get-PhysicalDisk in PowerShell, install the free CrystalDiskInfo tool, or open Settings and look under Storage in System. Each option gives a different level of detail, from a quick pass or fail label to a full SMART breakdown.
Windows 11 moved several storage menus from where they sat in Windows 10, so older tutorials often point to paths that no longer exist. Here is what actually works now, plus the command that replaced wmic as Microsoft phases it out of newer builds.
Check Drive Info in Windows 11 Settings
Open Settings > System > Storage, then scroll to Advanced storage settings > Disk & volumes. Click your SSD to see its capacity, partitions, and drive letter.
This screen does not show a SMART health score. It confirms which physical disk you are looking at, useful when a PC has more than one drive.
For a status check tied to drive type, search Optimize Drives in the Start menu. It lists each disk’s media type and whether optimization is needed, a type confirmation rather than a wear indicator.
Get a Real SMART Health Status With PowerShell
Open PowerShell as administrator and run Get-PhysicalDisk | Select FriendlyName, HealthStatus, OperationalStatus. Windows 11 reports back Healthy, Warning, or Unhealthy for each connected drive.
For more detail, run Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter | Select DeviceId, Wear, Temperature, ReadErrorsTotal, WriteErrorsTotal. This pulls wear percentage and temperature straight from the drive’s own reliability counters.
A wear value climbing toward the top of its range, or error counts that keep growing between checks, are the two numbers worth watching closest.
Why wmic diskdrive get status Might Not Work Anymore
Older guides still recommend wmic diskdrive get status from Command Prompt. Microsoft has been stripping wmic out of newer Windows 11 feature updates, so on a fully patched 24H2 machine that command can return “not recognized.”
The direct replacement is Get-CimInstance Win32_DiskDrive | Select Model, Status in PowerShell, which returns the same OK or Pred Fail style status through the modern CIM interface.
Use CrystalDiskInfo for a Full SMART Report
For the most complete picture, install CrystalDiskInfo. It runs cleanly on Windows 11 and reads the same SMART attributes the drive’s firmware already tracks.
Check the health label at the top of each drive panel: Good, Caution, or Bad. Scroll down for reallocated sector count and total bytes written, the numbers that show how much life is genuinely left.
If the machine also feels sluggish in general, work through our Windows 11 slow laptop guide alongside the SMART check, since a failing SSD is one of the more common hidden causes.
When a Warning Means Back Up Today
A Warning or Unhealthy result from PowerShell, a red or yellow label in CrystalDiskInfo, or a wear percentage near the top of its range all point to the same conclusion: stop treating that drive as reliable.
Back up first, then investigate. If the drive is also disappearing from the system, confirm it still shows up at the firmware level; our guide to opening BIOS on Windows 11 covers where storage devices are listed.
Running macOS or Linux on part of the same setup? See our broader SSD health guide covering Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Windows 11 have a built-in SSD health checker?
Not a dedicated one. Settings shows capacity and partitions, and Optimize Drives confirms the media type, but the actual health status comes from PowerShell’s Get-PhysicalDisk command or a tool like CrystalDiskInfo.
Is CrystalDiskInfo safe to use on Windows 11?
Yes. It only reads SMART data the drive already reports and does not write to the disk or change any settings during a normal health check.
What does HealthStatus Warning mean in PowerShell?
It means Windows detected a reliability counter outside its normal range, such as rising wear or growing read errors. Treat it as a signal to back up soon, not as proof the drive has already failed.