My hard drive keeps reporting errors with Disk Utility's Verify Disk - is it failing?

[ravenvii]

A couple of months ago I noticed my Mac acting strangely so I went through the usual process - permissions, verify, etc. Well when I verified my disk, it reported errors. So I popped in my Snow Leopard DVD and repaired the disk. All seems fine. Fast forward to a few weeks later, same thing, first thing I did was verify disk, and yep, errors. Snow Leopard DVD in, repaired, and all is fine.

Just happened again today, and Disk Utility reported errors again. Is my hard drive dying, or is this something else? Do I have to take the iMac into the Apple Store (ugh)?

 

[-aggie-]

I hope you've backed up, since it does sound like you're headed for total failure.

 

[spinnerlys]

What kind of errors does Disk Utility give you?

It may either be that the file system is corrupt and a formatting is in order or the HDD might have damaged sectors.

 

[ravenvii]

Well all of my important docs and stuff are on my iDisk, so there's no worries about data loss. The only thing is I don't want to take the iMac to the Apple Store right now - firstly it's a hassle, and secondly I am doing a paper in Pages, and I don't have another Mac to do it on, so if this iMac goes down, I'm screwed more or less.

(It has a lot of footnotes and formatting, so if I just export to .doc, I'll have to do a lot of work cleaning it up, which is yet another hassle)

I repaired the disk, and everything says it's OK now. I hope it'll last at least for another couple of months, then it can feel free to die if it wants.