Asklemmy

First rule, always have backups. Especially with an older drive, make sure anything you might need is duplicated somewhere else. Ideally off-site to prevent loss in case of things like burglary or a fire. Even something as simple as Google Drive or OneDrive.

Personally, I'd take a look at replacing it with an SSD if you can afford to, not only because of the age, but better performance. You may not notice slowness, but making the jump from a HDD to an SSD is still at least a little noticeable even on secondary drives from my experience.

it could easily last a few more years but after that long you should assume it could fail any day and either don't keep anything critical on it or make regular backups of anything important.

You should get a new drive when yours breaks - its usually pretty obvious when that's happening.

You absolutely should ensure your important files are backed up though, even on a brand new drive.

If you don’t have backups then yes you should be worried.