hp scan showed this Surface scan test = Failed

[gamer]

Hi
my hp Quad core ( vista os ) computer is like 3.5 yrs old and been running fine until today , it showed surface scan test as failed , so i googled it and did not find much, except to buy a driver program up date,it wanted me to buy  this or that , not what i want. ever thing else that was scanned was good ( passed) , so how can i fix, please help, let me know if u need more info on it. my log on name tell u what i do with my computer, hee hee. thx

gamer

[James_PCD]

Hello Gamer,

A little info regarding the test:
This test scans for surface defects on the test media, reading entire tracks beginning with the center track and moving outward to the maximum track. If any errors occur when reading a track, the test logs an error.

A fail result indicates that bad sectors were found.  Does this mean your drive is going bad and needs to be replaced?  Not necessarily, drives can have bad sectors and continue to operate without issue.  Unless you are having performance issues or issues with applications crashing, I would say it is safe to ignore the issue at this time.  If you starting having the issues I mentioned I would recommend backing up the drive and getting a new one. 

I hope this addresses your concerns,

jbpcdr