Hard Disk Monitoring

I got the following error from an external WD MyBook (1 TB):
Failure Predicted - Attribute: 3 Spin Up Time, Time needed by spindle to spin-up to full RPM. Indicate problem with motor or bearings.
Replace hard disk immediately.

It is recommended to backup immediately to prevent data loss.

Is this drive lost? I did manage to offload all my data without problem, and am reformatting the drive. However, I have concerns about the spindle bearings - and I suspect there is nothing I can do to fix this and will need to dump the drive.

Your thoughts??

I agree.

There is a serious problem with the drive which cannot be fixed.
As you noticed the drive may function properly and you may even does not notice any problems during access of data (there is no speed decrease or hardly accessible areas) because the surface and the heads are not damaged. So the drive seems OK - when spinning.

The problem is that it is possible that one day it cannot spin up (because of the stuck spindle) and the data cannot be accessed again. Opening the drive and replacing its parts is not a good idea as it would be possible only in special extremely clean rooms at data recovery companies (and it's cost with the data recovery would be much more than a new hard disk).

I do not recommend to store any serious/important data on this drive. If you even consider to use as secondary storage, make sure the reduce the power up/down cycles as much as possible (eg. by disabling power management) but keep in mind that it can be permanently failed any time.