Hard drive acting up? It could be hardware issues — here's how to find out

If your PC's hard drive is acting up, use these tools on Windows 10 to check the SMART data to find out if the drive is failing.

On Windows 10, in addition to frequently checking and repairing logical errors and other problems on a drive, it's also wise to periodically check whether that rotating platter hard-disk drive (HDD) or Solid-State Drive (SSD) is still physically reliable to prevent sudden hardware failure, which can ultimately cause data loss.

The only caveat is that Windows 10 doesn't include a mechanism to determine the status of the hardware on its own. However, you can use tools like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and Performance Monitor to access information from the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) built into most drives to determine if the device is still physically healthy or failing due to hardware issues.

In the event that SMART reports an imminent failure, you can quickly order a replacement and migrate the data before the hard drive fai...