Still under warranty? If so, does 'bad blocks' make it qualify for replacement? If so, got the receipt?

608
and im not sure if they are reallocated or uncorrectable
will cristaldisk be able to provide me with that information ?

Yep and it's free.
It will also show you a yellow or red alert if the drive is in a bad status.

Yeah, I would also suggest using CrystalDiskInfo, since that will give you the S.M.A.R.T. info of the hard drive. But since you're already reporting multiple reallocated sectors, that could mean that the HDD is dying and the drive should be replaced. Can you post the CrystalDisk SMART results? Be sure to backup your data too!

crystal disk says yellow alert

im kinda tempted now to break out my 40 gig ssd
install windows 7 on that
and reallocate my documents and program files to a spare 160 gig hd i have

It's probably better to do it as soon as possible.
Also, If you need, you are still able to access the original drive.

By the way, what was the exact report? (screenshot?)

I'm still using a "yellow" hdd (2 bad blocks) since months, but it's just for temporary data and with a backup.

HDD Regenerator

It can restore bad sectors and move data from those that it can't to a healthy sector so you don't lose data. It's expensive though and the demo is quite limited, it should be worth a try though.

I've had disks with one or two remapped sectors work flawlessly for years, but 608 sounds like a lot. I'd seek to replace the drive as soon as convenient.

Then again, any hard disk can break at any time, with or without warning..

By the way, if I'm not mistaken, 1 sector is only 512 bytes and reallocate ones mean 0 data lost.
SMART only warns you that there have been some problems to try to foretell hdd failure.

I have a 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200, with 977 remapped sectors (probably much less because there where 950 bad ones in the first month, after I found that my drive had a S.M.A.R.T. bug which counted bad sectors from nowhere, when I updated, it stopped), going to be 4 years and rarely a new bad sector appears.

If bad sectors are growing rapidly, check if there are firmware bugs like in my case, if not, prepare to replace.

for those wondering i switched to a 40 gig ssd and a 160 gig hd
the ssd containts windows and the apps i feel that could use a speed boost ( itunes seamonkey )
the 160 gig is for the rest ( ie downloads files my documents all that rot )

Average lifespan for HDD is usually 5 years depending on usage. Why didn't anyone mention CHKDSK?

I know you said it only contained your OS, but do yourself a favor and clone/image it anyway. It will be so much easier rather than having to reinstall all your software and settings, and you don't have to make frequent images. There are plenty of free disk cloners/imagers. Find one that can clone and also make a boot disk (AKA Linux Rescue CD or the likes)

I was using Paragon, but when my drive started going bad, it wouldn't make an image. Macrium Reflect Free did the trick. Saved me just in time, too.

LOL!!!! Crazy evil man... I remember that movie :P

Windows on an SSD ftw! Nice! I don't know if you know this, or if anyone else suggested it, but you should be careful not to fill your SSD too much.

Surprisingly, a study shows that you should plan to only fill it to 75% max. Leaving less than 25% free, and the SSD will slow down. I researched this when I switched to a new OS. I was tired of waiting 15~25 minutes for my XP to finish loading! So upgraded AND used an SSD for the OS with HDD for everything else.

Why Solid-State Drives Slow Down As You Fill Them Up

To see if your hard drive is really defective, get the ISO of the "<span class="bold">Ultimate Boot CD</span>" (UBCD for short), burn it to a CD or a DVD, then boot from it. It contains all the diagnostic tools for most HDD brands on the market. Your hard drive has more than a year, and if it's still under warranty, you may have to deal directly with the manufacturer for a RMA. They usually ask for the error code reported by their own diagnostic tool. These tools are all available on the UBCD. They test the internal functions of the drive, check the SMART attributes and the data structure, and test each block on the disk, before giving you an error code. A 0x0 error means that the drive is healthy. UBCD also comes with "memtest" to check your RAM, a few cloning and partitioning tools, and many other useful utilities. It's a must!

"<span class="bold">SpinRite</span>", by Gibson Research Corporation, is a good application for fixing bad hard drives (but it's not recommended for SSD, except for testing purposes). "<span class="bold">SpeedFan</span>" and "<span class="bold">Speccy</span>" are both good for retrieving S.M.A.R.T. attributes and monitoring all the temperatures (CPU, GPU, HDD and chipset).

If your drive is failing, backup all your data before it's too late. With a cloning software such as "Acronic True Image", you can easily clone the defective hard drive to a brand new one, without having to reinstall Windows, but don't wait too long! ;-)