Smart error - drive failure imminent?

[molinari]

Got a Western Digital 250Gb IDE drive that is 2 months old and I'm now getting a SMART error at boot . I downloaded the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and in the SMART Disk Information there is 1 red cross by Spin Up Time, and a value of 21. I'm a bit confused as to how bad this is because I've read one article on SMART monitoring which says a low value is good, and another article which says a low value is bad .
Anyway, I ran a quick test which failed with the following error:

"Quick test on drive 2 did not complete!
Status code = 04 (unknown failed test element), failure checkpoint = 64 (SMART attribute test)."

I also run an advanced test which completed with no errors, and there is now a green tick next to the "advanced test" menu option !

Can anyone suggest whether this is a serious problem which will cause the disk to fail at some point?

 

[semi-pro waster]

SMART isn't infallible as far as I know but I'd definitely be backing up your work now and do so regularly (you should anyway) because more often than not it is a good hint that a problem exists.

 

[molinari]

an update to this.....

After the extended test, the PC now boots with no SMART error message . When I start the diagnostics software, the quick test now runs and passes with no errors as well . However, the drive still has a red X next to Spin Up Time which now has a value of 245 (was 21) .