How to check drive temperature on Windows 10

Windows 10 can now show temperature information for internal hard drives, and here's how to check the information.

Windows 10 hard drive temperature
Windows 10 hard drive temperature

On Windows 10, up until now, you needed third-party tools whenever you wanted to check the hard drive temperature. However, starting with build 20226, the Manage Disks and Volumes settings page has been updated with a new storage health monitoring feature that can not only notify you of any hardware abnormalities, but it also displays the internal hard drive temperature for Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) Solid-State Drives (SSDs).

Although you rarely need to check the drive temperature, this information can come in handy in many situations. For example, if the hard drive is running hot for a long time, it could be an indication that a lot of unexpected activities are processing inside the storage. It could indicate that the drive is at risk of failure, and you need to backup the data. Or it could mean that you need to improve the cooling system.

In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to find out the current drive temperature without third-party tools on Windows 10.

Check hard drive temperature on Windows 10

To find out the hard drive current temperature, use these steps:

  1. Open Settings on Windows 10.

  2. Click on System.

  3. Click on Storage.

  4. Under the “More storage settings” section, click the Manage Disks and Volumes option.

    Manage Disks and Volumes option
    Manage Disks and Volumes option
  5. Select the drive you want to know its temperature.

  6. Click the Properties button.

    Hard drive properties button
    Hard drive properties button
  7. Under the “Drive health” section, confirm the hard drive temperature.

    Drive temperature reading
    Drive temperature reading

Once you complete the steps, you’ll have an understanding of the current temperature for the storage device, which is valuable information you can use to troubleshoot problems or rethink the cooling system for the device.

If you don’t see the temperature details, it’s likely that you don’t have a supported drive (currently only NVMe SSDs are supported), or you’re not running the version of Windows 10 that includes the drive health feature. At the time of this writing, the feature is available with build 20226 and higher releases.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows expert and the Editor-in-Chief who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He's also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 12 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows, software, and related technologies, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ & Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, and LinkedIn.