Hi. I’ve had this 1 TB HDD for about 5 years and now it’s giving some problems. I use it for Time Machine backups on my Mac, so it automatically turns on every hour and make a backup.
First of all, I think there are some spin up problems: usually it makes a short sound and then immediately start spinning, but sometimes it makes a longer, buzzing noise followed by the “normal” sound and it fails to start. After about a second, it tries again and starts correctly.
Today I was normally using my Mac when it gave me a critical warning saying that the disk could not be repaired, and that I had to back it up immediately and format it. Now I can’t mount the HDD anymore and I can’t repair it using Disk Utility, as the “Repair Disk” button is greyed out.
However I did some tests using diagnostic tools and the S.M.A.R.T. status seems to be OK.
Is my HDD failing? Should I buy a new one?