repair of volume, or not

[GNV]

I ran Disk Utility, repair disk, from the CD, on a G4 with 10.5.8.  Fix Permissions looked as though it was hung, so I ran the other.  It reported '1 HFS volume repaired. 1 volume could not be repaired'.  I don't believe the computer was partitioned.  So I looked at Partitions and it shows me that 1/3 of the hard drive appears to be blank.  2/3 was blue/selected.  So I'm gathering that 1/3 of the hard drive has failed, (physically?= if I interpret it correctly) 
Is there anything I should do about it to prevent the rest from failing? Or can I just ignore it, until I decide to buy a hard drive to put in its place?  It's old enough, and I don't need a big drive on it.  There's still space available on what's there.
Any advice?

[Dan Millar]

Uh-oh - no there's not much you can do except copy the files from that drive to another as quickly as possible, before the drive fails completely. Did you try to run the Disk Repair or just Fix Permissions?

Happy Mac'ing!

Dan

[GNV]

I ran Disk Repair and that is where I got the message that 1 volume could not be repaired.  But I gather you're telling me that the hard drive is getting ready to die and I either put a new hard drive in the laptop or get a new computer.  Right?  There are no documents, so it's just a case of copying the apps from it.

[Dan Millar]

Yes, the message that Disk Utility cannot repair your disk means  your disk probably needs replacing quickly, and if there are no docs on it, better to just start anew with a fresh hard drive.

Apps are better re-installed, especially those that require registration, etc.

The blue/blank distinction in the Partition pane of Disk Utility is just to show an approximation of how much disk space is used, not damage.

Copy any files/apps you want to keep immediately.

Just for fun, after copying the files, try doing a "safe boot". To do that, hold down the shift key until you see the spinning wheel at startup. This forces the Mac to start up with no third-party or unnecessary extensions and runs Disk First Aid before attempting to load your account or the login screen. The drive may pass DFA this way. If it does, your drive is actually okay, and you may want to just do a reformat/reinstall and take your chances that the drive is okay - though if it is a few years old, the problem may recur.

Hard drives are so cheap now, it's not a bad idea to just get a new one if you have any doubts. Buy two, and use one as a Time Machine backup - you'll never have to worry about drive failure/corruption again!

Happy Mac'ing!

Dan