Is an hard drive still reliable if it a S.M.A.R.T attribute previously failed

Question

I acquired an used Seagate 500Gb ST3500413AS hard drive.

Its Ambiant temperature S.M.A.R.T. attribute is marked as Failed previously, every other attributes is marked as OK.

I ran a S.M.A.R.T. self test, it completed successfully and reported that the hard drive is healthy.

I'm currently using gnome-disks under Linux Mint.

Is an hard drive with an attribute (or several attributes) marked as Failed previously, but still reports itself as healthy still reliable?

Answer 1

Based on the available SMART data, it's not possible to definitely declare the drive healthy or not.

Comments to this question have already begun accumulating which point out the tension that exists between the fact your drive's SMART data isn't reporting a clearly-failed drive, yet it's nonetheless possible the drive's integrity has been compromised.

In light of this uncertainty, the better question to ask is am I willing to trust my data to this drive of uncertain reliability? Only you know how valuable your data is, how well protected it is (e.g. via backup, drive redundancy, etc.), what your tolerance for downtime is, etc. The answers to these questions should inform your decision on whether to trust a drive with a tainted SMART report.

IMHO, if the manufacturer felt it important enough to indicate a SMART data point as failed (even previously), I would consider the drive substandard and not use it for any purpose where I couldn't afford to have the unit unexpectedly fail. (Then again, I assume all hard drives will unexpectedly fail and design my systems to survive this inevitability...but I digress.)