Windows detected a hard disk problem, seems to be reallocated bad sectors? Is the drive beyond saving?

[CKL]

Hello all,

I've owned a Gateway NV55S laptop for 2 years, and just the other day warnings started being issued about a hard disk problem being detected.
Of course I made the back-up (I'm going to note that I've only used about 80 GB out of the 450 GB it says is available) but I haven't noticed anything different about it. There are no noises or anything that usually indicates that the drive is going bad fast (Of course, I know that does not mean that it isn't- I just mean that there is nothing absolutely obvious.)

The hard drive installed in my computer is a WDC WD5000BPVT-22HXZT1, so I downloaded the Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics and poked around with that. The SMART status is a FAIL for the drive, and when I look at it, it shows everything with a green check mark, except for the reallocated sector count. The numbers that it's showing are:
Value 139
Threshold 140
Worst 139

I honestly do not know what this means, or what it entails. I suppose it's a good idea to replace the hard drive in the near future, anyway, but in the mean time, is it possible to repair it in any way? If it's any importance, I live in a household that has multiple younger children, so this computer has had it's fair share of drops, bumps, and improper shutdowns, thanks to kids getting their hands on it on occasion. (Obviously, I don't use this computer for anything amazingly important, or I'd keep it out of reach of young hands at all times!)

I guess what I'd like to know is if anyone thinks that hard drive failure is imminent, and if I need to replace the drive ASAP, or if it's nothing to be worried about? I'm going to run CHKDSK, at any rate.

Thanks for putting up with clueless me!

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

You need to replace it asap! Never ignore what the diagnostic software tells you.

 

[hitted]

It most probably is beyind saving. This message states that the HDD will start failing soon since it's running out of reallocated sectors.

 

[fzabkar]

HD Sentinel or CrystalDiskInfo will report the actual number of reallocated sectors.

 

[hang-the-9]

Replace the drive in the computer with a new one, get a USB enclosure for this one, run a check disk with repair on it, use the old drive to copy files around till it dies. Don't use it as a main drive or to store backups though, but for things like moving movies around it will be OK till it's dead.