What does "S.M.A.R.T. Disk Failure Predicted" notification mean?

The short answer

Your computer is warning you that your hard drive or SSD is showing signs of failing soon, and you should back up your files immediately.

What is S.M.A.R.T.?

S.M.A.R.T. stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology. It’s a built-in health monitoring system inside every hard drive and SSD. Your drive constantly tracks things like:

  • Read/write errors — how often the drive struggles to access data
  • Bad sectors — damaged spots on the drive that can no longer store data reliably
  • Temperature — overheating can shorten a drive’s lifespan
  • Power-on hours — how long the drive has been running in total

When these numbers cross a dangerous threshold, your computer’s BIOS or operating system shows the “Disk Failure Predicted” warning.

What should you do right now?

This is one of the few computer warnings you should take seriously. Your drive could fail in weeks, days, or even hours. Here’s what to do:

  1. Back up your files immediately — copy important documents, photos, and files to an external drive or cloud storage
  2. Don’t ignore it and reboot — every time you restart, you risk the drive not coming back
  3. Get a replacement drive — buy a new hard drive or SSD and plan to swap it out soon
  4. Clone your drive — if possible, use software to copy your entire drive to the new one before it fails completely

When should you worry?

Right now. Unlike most computer notifications, this one is genuinely urgent. S.M.A.R.T. warnings are rarely false alarms. Studies have shown that drives reporting S.M.A.R.T. errors are significantly more likely to fail within the next few months.

That said, “predicted” doesn’t mean “instant.” You usually have some time, but treat it like a countdown. The sooner you back up and replace the drive, the less likely you are to lose anything important.