Knowing the age of a hard drive is important for estimating its remaining service life and identifying possible failures before they happen. This article explores how to determine the age of an HDD using simple methods. The easiest approach is to check the manufacturing date printed on the drive’s label. Many manufacturers include this date (often in the format ‘YYYY-MM-DD’ or ‘MMYYY’) and it may be marked as ‘DOM’ (Date of Manufacturer). If no date is given, the warranty can give you a clue.
The age can often be checked on the manufacturer’s website using the serial number. However, some manufacturers only state the warranty period, so it’s not always possible to determine the exact age. To read out the serial number, you can either read it off the label or through Windows using the command prompt. To do this, open the command prompt by typing cmd in the Windows search bar and pressing enter. Then enter the command wmic diskdrive get serialnumber. The serial number will be displayed.
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In none of these methods work, the drive’s operating time can provide an estimate. The ‘Power On Hours’ (POH) value indicates how many hours the hard drive has been in use. This information can be read from the hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. data using free tools such as Crystaldiskinfo. To estimate the age, divide the displayed hours by your average daily usage time. Keep in mind that this method doesn’t provide an exact figure, but it can give you an approximation.
You can use the Windows prompt to display the serial number of your HDD without having to remove it first. This is particularly useful for notebooks.
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The installation date of the operating system can provide an additional clue. If the hard drive has never been reformatted or replaced, the original installation date of the operating system can be used as a rough guide. In Windows, you can display this using the command systeminfo | find ‘Original Install Date’ in the command prompt. However, this method is imprecise, especially if you’ve updated the operating system or cloned it from another drive.
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Regardless of the hard drive’s exact age, you should look out for signs of impending failure. Unusual noises such as clicking or grinding, slow data transfers, startup issues, or frequent errors when accessing files may indicate it’s losing performance. Repeated requests for drive repair or sudden system crashes are also warning signs. If you notice any of these symptoms, it’s advisable to back up your data immediately and consider switching to a faster SSD. Regular backups are crucial to avoid data loss.
This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.