I know this sounds insane but get the memory tester program from Microsoft that comes as an ISO image. You just burn it to a CD and when you boot it, it tells you if your memory is good. It's most likely either that or a driver issue for your motherboard's chipset. If the RAM is good, make sure that you have installed drivers for your PC's motherboard and/or drive controller in MS Windows. If you own a prebuilt machine, then of course this was done at the factory. 
There is also MemTest86 but use the MS one if you're worried about not knowing who made it.
Are you guys using 64 bit windows?
I am (Vista Ultimate x64) and also get the instant fail on a new drive that functions fine. I ask as there are other threads about 64bit support being poor.
If a drive is going to fail it will fail in the first few weeks or after a few years (depending on conditions) so don't worry too much about the false negative.
I've recently had a seagate fail after 3 months though and another isn't looking so good right now (might even be the replacement drive!) but of course have no tools to test it with 
