Windows 10 to Start Warning Users of Imminent SSD Failure

If you see the new notification on your system, it means you need to start backing up all your data immediately. Although SSDs are faster than mechanical hard drives, they are not immune to failure and can fail without warning you.

Thankfully, Microsoft is aiming to help you avoid the potential disaster with its new drive health monitoring feature that is being added to Windows 10.

In the blog for the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20226, the Senior Program Manager at Microsoft Brandon LeBlanc, says this new drive health monitoring feature “is designed to detect hardware abnormalities for NVMe SSDs.”

When such an abnormality is detected, a notification will pop up on the desktop stating, ” A storage device may be at risk of failure and requires your attention.”

There is also a clickable link to load up Windows 10’s drive management and backup options, which also provides more details on why Windows sent the notification.

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When you see this notification on your desktop or laptop, it is a signal that you should start backing up your data immediately. There is a great chance that the super-fast SSD you have been relying on, probably for many years, is about to meet its waterloo.

You can check the health of your drive at any time in Build 20226. Just navigate to Setting > Storage > Manage disk and volumes > Properties, where the health information of the Drive is located. You will see the estimated remaining life, current temperature and any warning in the red text concerning the drive there. You also have the option to “Back up now.”

If you are not comfortable with the Windows backup option, you can use other backup means such as Online backup services.

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