[OpenAFS] Should I replace a hard drive with known bad blocks?

[Kevin]

Hi list-

I realize that various filesystem tools (ext2, ext3, etc.) have utilities to
map bad blocks and avoid having the system use them, but is it a good rule
of thumb that a HDD with bad blocks is failing?  ie, that finding bad blocks
is an indicator that the HDD will soon fail catastrophically?

I'm considering installing an OpenAFS server on a machine with such a hard
drive.  I've done about 20-40 passes on the partitions searching for bad
blocks, and I do find them, but the number remains the same on each pass.

So the question is one of judgment.  Do list members think it would be
advisable to replace a hard drive at the first indication that there are bad
blocks (in anticipation of it failing soon)?  If that is overkill, is it a
bad idea to use a hard drive in production use where data integrity is
important and the hard drive is known to have bad blocks?  Or is it
perfectly safe if some precautions are followed (such as scanning for bad
blocks periodically henceforth)?  Or other?

Thanks for any feedback.

-Kevin