Starting with the storage health monitor, Microsoft wants Windows 10 21H1 to be able to detect storage hardware issues more efficiently. With the new storage monitor, the platform can deliver notifications before a drive fails. This is important because it would prevent data loss. Microsoft says the new tool in preview is limited to NVMe SSDs, so it won’t functions for regular HDDs or SATA SSDs. We guess Microsoft will change that in the future and we hope before Windows 10 21H1 launches next year. Notifications will appear when problems in storage hardware are detected. This could be performance issues or something more serious. Users can check in with drive health through Settings > System > Storage > Manage disks and volumes.
Alongside monitoring, Windows 10 can also show how much life your storage device has left. This is an estimate based on what manufacturers place as their predicted product lifetime. While a drive past its predicted lifetime won’t necessarily need replacing, it will allow users to prepare to manage their data elsewhere. Other tools available include the ability to monitor temperature, how much space is left, and more.
Your Phone Update
Elsewhere in the latest Windows 10 21H1 preview, Microsoft is giving its Your Phone app a bump. If you’re unfamiliar, this is the company’s tool that allows users to stream their Android smartphone on a Windows 10 PC. Since the launch of the Surface Duo last month, Your Phone has become even more important to Microsoft. For this update, Your Phone is getting a tool that helps users better manage the devices they link. Thanks to a new settings page called My Devices, users can remove old devices, switch between devices, and add new ones much more efficiently.
