Disk health is one of those metrics that people tend to forget about; one day, you’re using your PC as usual, and the next, you lose all of your files in a hard drive fault. However, Microsoft is making it easier to check your hard drive health by adding a tool to Windows 10 that does it for you.
The New Disk Health Monitor for Windows 10
The news on this feature dropped on Windows Blogs within the announcement of the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20226. This new update contains a few interesting features, one of which being a disk health monitor.
This disk monitor will keep tabs on the health of an NVMe solid-state drive (SSD). When Windows 10 detects that it’s on the way out, it will alert the user. Once the user receives the alert, Microsoft highly recommends that they back up their data.
If you want to see how your disk is faring before it wears out on you, Microsoft has added the ability to check a disk health report. You can see it in the Insider build by visiting Settings > System > Storage > Manage disks and volumes.
This feature is a welcome update, as users previously had to download third-party tools to check their drive’s health. Now, not only will every Windows 10 user will receive a native disk-checker tool, but even those who are unaware of their disk’s health will be warned before it’s too late.
What Else Is Included in the Update?
This new update also makes some tweaks to the Your Phone app on Windows 10. Microsoft has been revamping Your Phone a lot recently, such as letting it run Samsung Galaxy apps on your PC.
Previously, Your Phone would only work well if you owned a single phone; however, things got a little tricky when you wanted to add or remove additional devices.
Now, with the new Your Phone app, you can easily add a new phone, remove old ones, or swap between different devices. The update also includes a device list for easy swapping, and each device will show its wallpaper on the list for easy identification.
If you want to give these features a try for yourself, be sure to visit the Windows Insider program for more information on how to sign up.
Keeping Tabs on your Computer’s Health
The new disk health monitoring tool in Windows 10 Insider is a fantastic way to protect users’ data. Even if a user doesn’t know that disks have a lifespan, Windows 10 will now inform them that trouble is brewing and allow them to take action.
With this update, another useful feature originally granted exclusively by third-party apps becomes a native tool within Windows 10. We’ll have to see if Microsoft will add future tools to its operating system in the future.
If you didn’t know that disk drives could fail, you owe it to yourself to learn more about how it happens. There are plenty of signs that a hard drive is dying, and spotting them could make the difference between keeping your data or losing it all.
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