Got a used hard drive and want to know its age? Or have you been using it for years and starting to wonder how much longer it will last? Here are a few ways to determine the age of your hard drive.

Look at the Physical Label

The easiest and most accurate way to determine a hard drive’s age is to check the manufacturing date on its physical label. Since these labels are printed at the factory, they typically display the production date, making them the most reliable source of information. However, not all manufacturers include this detail.

To check, turn off your computer and unplug it from the power source. Open the case and locate the hard drive, then flip it over to see if a sticker with the date is present. The date format is usually YYYY-MM-DD or MM-YYYY. The date may be written by itself, but it also might be labeled as “DOM” or “Date of Manufacture.”

If you use a laptop, you may need a special set of screwdrivers to get access to the hard drive. Some laptops come apart rather easily, while others can be difficult. When in doubt, get professional help—you don’t want to damage anything accidentally.

Check the Warranty Status on the Manufacturer’s Website

If the manufacture date isn’t printed on the drive’s label, you can estimate its age by checking its warranty status on the manufacturer’s website. Simply enter the hard drive’s serial number to see when the warranty expires or if it has already expired. Based on the warranty duration, you can approximate its age.

Some manufacturers may also display the drive’s production date along with warranty details, making your task easier. To check the warranty, visit the manufacturer’s website, note the serial number on the label (or use the wmic diskdrive get serialnumber command in Command Prompt), enter it, and see if any details help estimate the drive’s age.

Estimate Life Using Power-On Hours

If the drive has no label and the warranty status doesn’t provide any details, you can estimate its age by checking its Power-On Hours (POH). This metric, which represents the total number of hours the drive has been powered on, can be retrieved using the Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) data via tools like CrystalDiskInfo.

To estimate the drive’s age, you can divide the reported power-on hours by your average daily usage. For instance, CrystalDiskInfo showed 1,780 hours for my drive, and I use my device about 10 hours daily (excluding weekends). This gives an estimate of 178 days. Taking weekends into account when I don’t use my device, the estimate extends to about 249 days.

My hard drive is over ten and a half months old, slightly different from the 8.3 months I calculated. So, this method only gives an estimate which may differ from the actual age.

Check the Installation Date of Your OS

If you’ve never replaced or formatted your hard drive and haven’t reinstalled or upgraded the operating system since purchasing it, your hard drive may be as old as your operating system’s installation date. While this method isn’t always accurate, it can provide a rough estimate.

To check the installation date, open Windows Search, type Command Prompt and launch the app. Then, run the command: systeminfo | find “Original Install Date” and press Enter. This will show when Windows was installed, providing a rough idea of your drive’s age. However, this estimate could be inaccurate if your OS was cloned from an older drive.

Signs of a Failing Hard Drive

If your hard drive is getting old, you should watch for signs of failure so you can replace it and transfer your data before disaster strikes.

The most obvious sign is hearing clicking, grinding, or beeping noises from the drive, which suggests mechanical issues. Frequent hard drive errors, difficulty booting with messages like “operating system not found,” or receiving warnings about disk space being full despite having plenty of free space are also red flags that point to a potential problem.

Additionally, if the S.M.A.R.T status shows poor drive health, data transfer speeds are unusually slow, your operating system takes a long time to boot, or files take forever to open, it could signal a problem. Repeated prompts to repair the drive, system crashes, or unexpected restarts during regular use could be strong indicators that it’s time for a replacement.

However, keep in mind that other factors may cause some of these symptoms, so not every warning necessarily means your hard drive is near the end of its life.

The older a hard drive gets, the higher the risk of drive failure, which could lead to data loss. That’s why you should check the age of a used hard drive before buying it. Likewise, you should monitor the lifespan of your old drive. Keeping track of its age can help you decide when it’s time for a replacement—perhaps with a decent SSD instead.