Recently I have noticed the sound of my PS3 a lot more, even when off, I can hear its fan whirring which is really starting to bother me. Is failure imminent?

It also seems to be chugging away more at discs. I have just moved it into an upright position right next to my Xbox, but I haven't even got the later plugged in, so surely that can't be doing any harm?

My buddy's did this and died. I think you better pet it and say good words to it.

I have been expecting it to break for some time, how long does the warantee last on these things, because I think this one is a few years old now

have you tried to clean it of dust? How long have you had it? Figure out what model you have and look up a video on how to clean it. it probably has dust build up

get an vacuum clearer and put it on low and put it ontop of the air vent. that will hopefully suck up the dust that most likely built up and causing overheating 

Overheating will cause the blu ray disk reader to melt (happen to me)

It's a fat, I think 80GB model, so the 2nd generation of European models...

Oh man Mine is the same model and it's doing the same :( I think I need to save up for a new one.

1 year so its way past it, I would make a full back up now, and then copy any save files daily

My old 40Gb started showing the same symptoms about 6 months before it got YLOD.

If you are worried about losing data, best to act early.

Doing a backup from one PS3 and restore to another means you will lose save games and other files that are copy protected. So when my PS3 died, I was very sad about losing my Demon's Soul save and a few other savegames.

So, I paid to get my PS3 YLOD repaired, bought a slim then i used the transfer utility (and prayed the YLOD lasted long enough), which copies EVERYTHING across. I jumped for joy to have all my data.

Now my old PS3 is sitting in a cupboard, even though it works.

My PS3 did it but I rarely notice it now. Does it overheat at all? Overheating a lot a symptom of failure approaching.

You should also try to keep your console clean if you can.