Guide

How to see your SSD's power-on hours and wear in PowerShell

Published 23 October 2026

A dark administrator PowerShell window showing Get-StorageReliabilityCounter output with power on hours, wear, temperature and read errors

Short answerRun Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter | Select-Object PowerOnHours, Wear, Temperature, ReadErrorsUncorrected in PowerShell as administrator. Divide PowerOnHours by 24 for days. A new laptop should show a small number.

Every SSD, and most hard drives, keep their own counters: hours powered on, wear, temperature and errors. That is handy before you buy a used laptop, or to check that a "new" one is really new.

Quick health check (no admin)

PowerShell

Get-PhysicalDisk | Select-Object FriendlyName, MediaType, HealthStatus

Healthy is only a pass or fail flag. For the numbers, you need the next step.

The counters (as administrator)

Open PowerShell as administrator and type:

PowerShell

Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter | Select-Object PowerOnHours, Wear, Temperature, ReadErrorsUncorrected

Example output

PowerOnHours Wear Temperature ReadErrorsUncorrected
------------ ---- ----------- ---------------------
        6400    3          38                     0

PowerOnHours: divide by 24 for days. 6400 hours is about 267 days of being switched on. A brand-new laptop should show a small number.
Wear: the percent of the drive's rated life used. 0 is new.
Temperature: in degrees Celsius.
ReadErrorsUncorrected: should be 0.

The numbers above are an example. Yours will differ.

Blank values or an error?

Without administrator rights, Windows answers Access to a CIM resource was not available to the client. Open PowerShell as administrator.
Blank values mean the drive, often a USB one, does not report that counter.

For the full report

Install the free CrystalDiskInfo with winget:

PowerShell

winget install CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskInfo

It shows the full SMART report with the same numbers and more.

What to do with the result

Buying a used laptop? Ask for the hours, then check them on the spot. A "like new" machine with 8,000 hours is not new.
High wear or errors that keep climbing? Back up your files now.