Most modern laptops and desktops will have a solid-state drive (SSD) as their primary storage device, but you might also have a secondary hard drive (HDD) for additional, but slower, storage. Regardless of which type you have, you may have wondered how you can see the real-time speed of your SSD or HDD. If you want to take a peek at your computer's operations and disk usage, you can easily do so by using the Task Manager in Windows 11. It will show you stats like active time, response time, read speed, write speed, capacity, and disk type.

How to monitor disk usage in Windows 11

Monitoring disk usage in Windows 11 involves using the Task Manager. There are three ways you can get to it.

1. Right-click on your taskbar or press Ctrl + Alt + Del.
2. Choose the Task Manager from there.
3. Click on the Performance Tab, and then click the disk that you want to see activity for. You may have multiple drive tabs, depending on how many SSDs/HDDs you have installed.
4. If you are looking for your main drive, then click on Drive (C:) since this is the primary storage device where your operating system is installed. (This should be the fastest storage device on your PC, preferably an SSD.)
5. On the right, you will see a graph at the top representing your Disk usage. If you're performing a heavy file operation, like copying or pasting multiple files, you'll see the lines on the graph go up or down over a 60-second interval. You can also look at the graph below to see your Disk's Transfer Rate.
6. The most important information below is the Active time & Response time. This shows how long your drive has been active and the average speed of its responses. The Read speed & Write speed will show how fast your drive can access stored information, and how fast it can save information to the drive. You can also note the Drive Type and Storage Capacity of the hard drive here.

Now you can keep an eye on your disk usage

That's all it takes to look at disk usage in Windows 11. This should not be confused with disk storage information, which you can access by going to the settings app, choosing System, and then Storage. That settings menu gives you more specific information about what type of information is taking up storage, and enables you to clean up space on your drive there.

If your HDD or SSD is low on space, then the drive will have worse performance. Try to always keep at least 100 GB free remaining on the drive if possible. If your drive is showing 100% usage, then your hard drive may be damaged or may need a driver update.