SMART C5 errors = "pending" doom?

[birthdaymonkey]

I have a 1.5TB WD EARS (green) drive that's been up for about 2.5 years of continuous use. I experienced an I/O error in an application today, so I fired up HD Tune. I've got 2 "Current Pending Sector" errors, which HD Tune considers a yellow "warning."

A Google search reveals that some people think these C5's can be correctly labeled bad sectors, and that the drive might be OK. But in my experience, when a drive starts to throw bad sectors, it's only a matter of time.

So I started backing everything up (last full backup Aug. 12...curse my laziness!), and I'm getting read errors in TeraCopy.

So I'm guessing the answer to the question in the thread title is probably yes.

 

[Elixer]

Yeah, seems ones those start, then the drive's new destiny is to become a scratch HD.
Though, I guess people still buy these things and use the parts for repairs, so you could still make a few bucks.