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Check the health of a hard drive, SSD or SD card

Drive Health shows what the drive reports about itself and reads it from start to end, so you see slow and unreadable areas before they cost you files. It only reads.

Download for Mac Download for Windows How it works

Free in AMWT Desktop · macOS 13 or later · Windows 10 and 11 (early access)

Coming in the next version of AMWT Desktop. The download today is version 1.0.0, which has Data Recovery; it updates itself when the new version is out.

A Drive Health result: Slow in places, a chart of read speed across the drive with a few dips, and a block-by-block map of the drive.

Drive Health

What it does

  • The drive's own reportWhere the drive keeps a health record (SMART), you see its verdict and readings such as temperature and wear. Most SD cards and USB sticks don't keep one.
  • A read testQuick reads about 1 GB spread across the whole drive; Full reads every part. Slow and unreadable areas are mapped as it goes.
  • A plain verdictHealthy, Slow in places, or Failing: back it up now. A failing drive gets a button to copy it to a file straight away.

How it works

Drive Health in three steps

  1. Choose the drive

    Cards, USB drives, external drives and this computer's own drive are all listed.

  2. Run a quick or full test

    Your computer asks for permission to read the drive directly. The test reads; it never writes.

  3. Read the verdict

    See the speed across the drive and the block map. If it is failing, back it up before anything else.

Good to know

What it can and can't do

  • The read test can't see problems in parts it doesn't read, so a quick test is a sample. Run a full test for a drive you have doubts about.
  • A slow area can come from a busy computer as well as from wear. Test again before you decide.
  • On Linux the drive's own report needs smartctl (the smartmontools package).
  • It finds problems; it can't repair a drive. A drive that is starting to fail usually gets worse.

Questions

Questions about Drive Health

How do I check if my hard drive is failing?
Run a full read test. A drive that reads everywhere at a steady speed is in good shape. Slow patches are an early sign of wear, and any part that can't be read means you should copy your files off now.
Can I check an SD card's health?
Yes. SD cards rarely keep a health record, so the read test is what tells you: it reads the card and maps any slow or unreadable parts.
Does the test change anything on the drive?
No. It only reads. Nothing is written to the drive.
How long does a test take?
A quick test reads about 1 GB and takes a minute or two. A full test reads the whole drive, so a 64 GB card at 90 MB/s takes about 12 minutes and a 2 TB hard drive several hours.
Is it free?
Yes. Drive Health is free in AMWT Desktop.

Read your Drive Health result