Win7 warns 3-month-old WD Black HD is failing.

Does Windows cry wolf? Anyone else had a SMART warning about a drive so soon after installation. Should I clone and replace it asap?

BillW

Download HD Tune and have a look in the Health tab.

There will likely be red/yellow highlighted rows stating the problem that SMART has found.

Personally I would replace any drive that triggers a SMART error message asap, just in case.

HD Tune usually shows errors on the scan page, SMART can be very temperamental at times. I'd be more inclined to trust the HD Tune scan or WD's own tools.

It's certainly possible for drives to fail this early.

Thanks to SUMMONER and to Jim. I’ve downloaded HD Tune and will run it as soon as I can. I use separate drives for the OS (an SSD), for data, and for audio-visual material. It’s the data drive that’s gone south, and I’m trying to pull off files before it fails altogether. The system is fairy new and I didn’t yet install a backup programme (after Acronis failed a restore once), and the Windows backup application is slooooow. I’ll hopefully manage to clone the disk and replace it.
BillW