Disk Utility says internal hard drive is failing

[sputacus]

Disk utility is indicating that my internal hard drive has a problem that can't be repaired. I also ran a S.M.A.R.T. test using Tech Tools and got the following result:

However, my hard drive appears to be running fine - haven't noticed any degradation of performance since receiving the warnings two days ago. And HD is still running quiet (no strange mechanical noises I'm accustomed to hearing prior to a failure). Nevertheless, I'm installing a new HD tomorrow and recloning it from a backup external drive (operating from external until then). I'm just curious, are these warnings pretty reliable indicators of imminent failure?

 

[Neolithium]

I've only had 2 hard drives fail on me, both gave me reallocated sector warnings ahead of time. Best to back up your data and replace it.

 

[NickZac]

Make a carbon clone copy on an external hard drive so you can boot off of that. Your HDD is going to break. It's quite common for even newer hard drives to bite the dust for unknown reasons.

 

[sputacus]

I keep several updated clones...will install new drive and restore from clone tomorrow.

 

[NickZac]

Thumbs up to you for keeping a few clones!!!

Regardless of the circumstances, everyone should keep a bootable clone on an external HD; it saves so much frustration, downtime, and lost data.