boot read errors

Can a hard drive/boot sector become corrupted?

If so, and the O/S is re-installed can it happen again?

Synopsis: I replaced a BAD hard drive in 10/08, after 45 days the O/S would not boot after BIOS ran. Diagnostics was run - ATP - BB/Geek Squad suggested repair of MBR file. If that failed to fix the problem they recommended re-installing the O/S from scratch. The MBR fix failed. The O/S was re-installed and all was fine for another 30 days.

Then after a "Norton" update required a re-boot of the system one morning I received a message after the BIOS ran "disc read error occurred - ctrl alt del".

I did not know what else to do, I took it back to BB and they ran all the diagnostic - ATP - the ONLY other thing they suggested was a bad controlloer on the MB 1/9/09.

2/14/09 - This morning for heck of it I booted the PC and received that same error. I decided to try re-loading the O/S thinking maybe the MBR was corrupted and not the MB controller as BB suggested.

Well I have successfully re-loaded the O/S and I have been able to re-boot the PC several times without any errors.

Can anyone identify with this type of situation or circumstance?

Thanks in advance...:confused