I can't argue about Dell quality, I have one and despite it being fine for me for that past 3 years I have seen enough problems on forums with them and the components to realise they ain't the most reliable !!
I would give Dell a call and tell them that it is the drive, say you have borrowed a friends and installed that and it works great but when you re-install yours it craps out !! Make the buggers live up to their warranty !
Failing that if its gonna cost you $99 to get them to send you a new drive just go to somewhere like www.meritline.com and order one from there - with shipping you will still save over the $99 cost of help from Dell !