Computer Help: Hard Drive with bad sectors?

Hey ya'll

this is an uncommon thing for me, asking for IT help, since i'm relatively computer savvy and i know how to use google, but this time around i'm at my wit's end. I've searched high and low online for answers and help but so far they've been underwhelming or far too complicated for me to follow

So the computer that i got hardly a couple months ago seems to have a damaged hard drive, or at least all evidence points to it;

-it works fine for a week or two or so, then starts getting real slow start ups, or random minute-long freeze times while doing normal stuff
-restore points can't be acessed 9 out of 10 times since it claims they are corrupted or something
-when i scan the hard drive for errors in safe mode, it claims that it has errors/defects and that it needs to be repaired, but it provides me with no option to do so, it only allows me to scan it for errors. if i scan it on regular mode, it says it's fine.

After the aforementioned week or so the freezeups get so constant and long that i see myself forced to return it to factory settings (it doesn't call it that, it's something like 'refreshing the system' or something, but what it essentially does is it keeps all my data, but it just uninstalls everything that wasn't installed when it came out of the shop), ive had to do it like.. 4 or 5 times in two month's time, and as you can imagine, having to reinstall everything i need to work is a fucking hassle

Now, i've tried a couple of HDD fixing programs, like for example HDD regenerator and a couple of others, but so far HDD Regenerator was the only one able to do anything; when using the trial version it was able to repair (or reallocate, wtv) one bad sector, but once i got it patched to be a non-trial version, it kept saying that it wasn't able to fix the problems 'under windows', or that i have too many programs running or whatever. But the thing is is that it doesn't seem to work on safemode and i don't really know how to access it in some other mode, or even how to access any other mode on fucking windows 8 (oh how i miss you xp)

I've made a bootable flash drive, but i can't even get that to work either, mainly because i don't even know to to boot from a flash drive in windows 8

Despite this, the point is that i'vehad more than 2 or 3 programs detect problems/defects in my harddrive so that's pretty certain. The computer is still within warranty and i could probably just bring it to the store and ask for the hard drive to be replaced or something, but in all honesty i'd rather avoid that hassle and only use it as a last resort; i'd much rather try fixing this myself if i can

so does any of you have any experience with this? are there any programs out there that can fix this? Is it fixable at all even or should i be better off just start packing my shit to take it to the store?

plz halp this is annoying and frustrating af