The main window combines simple status labels with detailed drive telemetry. Start with Health Status and Temperature, then identify which drive is selected before reading the S.M.A.R.T. table.
- 1 Drive selector and quick status area
- 2 Health Status
- 3 Temperature
- 4 Drive model
- 5 Firmware
- 6 Interface
- 7 Transfer Mode
- 8 Drive Letter
- 9 Power On Count
- 10 Power On Hours
- 11 Total Host Reads/Writes
- 12 S.M.A.R.T. table
1. Drive selector
The drive selector shows which physical device is currently being displayed. On systems with multiple disks, confirm that the selected model and drive letter match the device you intend to check.
2. Health Status
Health Status condenses one or more warning rules into a simple label such as Good, Caution, Bad or Unknown. If you see Caution or Bad, read the Caution and Bad guide before spending time on deeper diagnosis.
3. Temperature
Temperature is the current reported device temperature. It should be interpreted against the device model, workload and manufacturer specification rather than one universal safe number.
4-8. Identity and connection fields
Drive model, firmware, interface, transfer mode and drive letter identify the device and connection path. These fields are useful when checking whether a SATA SSD is linked at the expected speed or whether an external device is routed through USB.
9-10. Power cycles and operating time
Power On Count records how often the drive has been powered on. Power On Hours records operating time. Large values are context, not automatic proof that a drive is bad.
11. Total host reads and writes
Some SSDs and NVMe drives report total data read or written by the host. These numbers help explain wear, but different devices expose them in different units.
12. S.M.A.R.T. table
The S.M.A.R.T. table contains attribute IDs, normalized values and raw counters. The raw value is often the most interesting field, but it is also the easiest to misread without vendor context.
A practical reading order
Do not start with the longest raw-value list. First confirm which physical drive is selected, whether Health Status shows a warning and whether the temperature makes sense for the current workload. Then use model, firmware, interface, transfer mode and drive letter to make sure you are not interpreting the wrong device.
After that, read the S.M.A.R.T. table. On HDDs, sector-related attributes such as 05, C5 and C6 are often more actionable than general power-on time. On NVMe SSDs, fields such as Critical Warning, Available Spare, Percentage Used, Media and Data Integrity Errors and Error Information Log Entries are usually the first health fields to check.
What to record
- Drive model and drive letter, so later readings can be matched to the same physical device.
- Health Status and temperature at the time of the screenshot.
- The affected attribute names, IDs and raw values, not only the colored summary label.
- Whether the value changes over hours or days. A snapshot helps, but a trend often tells you more.
If a warning appears, use a conservative sequence: protect data first, identify the cause second, then decide whether testing or configuration changes are appropriate. CrystalDiskInfo reports telemetry; it does not repair media problems or guarantee a failure date.