Time for a new HD in my iMac?

[bgrinter]

I've had my iMac for about 3 years (24" with 500gb hard drive) and tonight it had problems. My wife said it froze today, and after rebooting iTunes complained about not being able to save.

I ran Disk Utility verify which said to repair the disk, but the repair couldn't save it and told me to back up what I can, format and restore.

I have a backup. No, I have two - a Time Machine backup and a weekly "SuperDuper" snap shot from last night (second is for off site storage - yeah I'm paranoid and its finally paid off).

Currently I'm trying to format the drive to restore however I'm wondering whether I should consider the drive suspect and replace it now? If so, can anyone recommend somewhere to replace an iMac hard drive that's good in Sydney / Western Sydney? I don't want to do it myself.

Thanks all for your reponse

[DoFoT9]

whenever a drive starts to show signs of failing, replace it!

it does sound like its failing, especially if Disk Utility cannot repair it.

at least hard drives are cheapish these days. :)

good man for having backups! :D

[Hellhammer]

Any reseller or Apple store should be able to do it. Even some non-Apple repair shops can do it as you're out of warranty