XP64 & WD 1.5Tb EARS Advanced Format - Any known issues?

[X10]

Hi All,
I got bought a 1.5Tb Western Digital EARS Drive at the beginning of the year and ran the alignment utility so that I could use it with my Windows XP 64Bit system. (Note, not as the boot drive)
All was fine initially, then after a few months I started to get Delayed Write Errors occassionally.
A month or two went by and they started to be more frequent and would hang my system. I ran Scandisk with with recovery of Bad Sectors, it took about 15 hours to complete, but it turned up negative on any errors.
I also ran the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic Tool from Western Digital and that took a similar amount of time, but came up negative again on bad sectors.
This month however, not only have I had Delayed Write Failed errors, but the system has blue screened a few times, and on reboot failed to recognise the hard drive. I ran the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic Tool and this time round I got a message saying "Too Many Bad Sectors".

My question is this - Is this just the sign of a faulty hard drive, or is this an underlying issue with XP64 and this particular drive when aligned?

I've contacted the retailer it was purchased from and it can be RMA'd, but I can't get a refund (as I'd rather get a Samsung F3 now), so I just want to be sure this isn't going to happen again.

Any thoughts welcomed!

X10

[X10]

Hi all,
I just thought I would update to say that I sent the drive back for exchange and the company sent me a new one.
I've only had it for a couple of weeks but the drive seems to be having issue again.

I haven't had any delayed write errors yet, but it's started to have a lag when accessing files from the drive (e.g. dragging a file into a program, saving to the drive).

I'm starting to think either I have bad luck or there is some underlying issue here.

Any thoughts welcomed!