bad blocks

[howarth bromo msbb uc edu (Jack Howarth)]

     I noticed the following error from the promise-sata
driver when attempting to write from a drive which I believe
has bad blocks. This is the correct interpretation of this
error message, correct?

Current sda: sense key Medium Error
Additional sense: Unrecovered read error-
                  auto reallocate failed

The Western Digital Model: WDC WD1200JD-00F Rev: 02.0
drive is being tested with their drive utility now
for a RMA. 
       What is the conventional wisdom about drive
recovery in such a situation? If the WD utility 
claims to have spared out the bad blocks would the
drive be acceptable to use? My experience in recovering
ide drives in such a manner hasn't been good. They
eventually go south again.
                      Jack