It appears to work fine (it contains my home partition for my main machine I daily drive) and I haven’t noticed signs of failure. Not noticeably slow either. I used to boot Windows off of it once upon a time which was incredibly slow to start up, but I haven’t noticed slowness since using it for my home partition for my personal files.
Articles online seem to suggest the life expectancy for an HDD is 5–7 years. Should I be worried? How do I know when to get a new drive?
Always do backups using the 1-2-3 method for any data stored on any media includi g cloud storage if sensibly possible. You WILL need it eventually and you WILL hate your past self for not checking if your backup actually works. Include your phone, too. If opensource is wanted, syncthing is a no-brainer. rsync pr freesync for personal bulk backups without cloud. (There is no Cloud. It’s just someone elses computer.)
One time I had a hard drive that stopped working without even giving two weeks notice! I concluded the technology is useless.