I run a short and long self-test using a SMART util, and then I do an NTFS full format, which writes zeros to the whole drive. Takes a few hours, but if it passes, it should be good.
Edit: I've only really had one recent drive failure. It was a 500GB Seagate 7200.11, and it travelled cross-country and back in the back of a van in a computer. It was probably bounced around one too many times.
I also had one DOA WD Green 1TB drive, when I ordered four of the bare drives from Frys.com, and they shipped all four in a very lightly padded bubble envelope, two wide and two high. They had dents in them from shipping. Amazingly, three out of the four were actually OK. I attribute that to being rampload, and that the heads weren't on the platters during shipping, but rather tucked away safely.
I hope that all HDs are rampload these days, it does make them much more robust for shipping.
Edit: I normally only buy retail-boxed drives. That way, they are guaranteed to be padded during shipping. Or if I order bare drives from Newegg, I order max quantity (usually 5) during sales, so that they usually ship them in the OEM foam crates for me, for better protection.