Help Identifying Which Physical Hard Drive Is Failing

Hi all,

I’m in the middle of replacing a failing hard drive and could use some advice.

Windows has been throwing up errors related to one of my older HDDs, so I’ve started backing up data in preparation for a swap. The issue is — I have two drives that are the exact same make and model installed in my system. They even show nearly identical names and serials in Disk Management, which is making it really difficult to figure out which physical drive is actually failing.

Is there any reliable method or tool that can help me link what I see in Windows (like “Disk 1” or “Disk 2”) to the actual drive installed in the case — without having to randomly unplug drives to test?

Would really appreciate any guidance before I start pulling cables and possibly removing the wrong drive. Thanks!

Tagged: Hard Drive

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Betty

Participant

July 23, 2025 at 3:41 am

Hey Frisky,

Yeah, I’ve run into this before — having identical drives can be a real headache.

Download CrystalDiskInfo — it’s free and shows each drive’s health along with full serial numbers. You can match that with the physical label on the drives without unplugging anything.

Also, in Device Manager > Disk Drives, right-click each one, go to Properties > Details > Physical Device Object name. That can help you trace which is which.

If you’re comfortable with PowerShell, this command helps too:

Get-PhysicalDisk | Select FriendlyName, SerialNumber, HealthStatus

Should help you figure out the failing one without pulling random cables.

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