do you mean that you used PQ to make that ext3 partition?
and have you ever successfully use that partition with linux before?
if there is no critical data in your ext3 partition, i suggest you format it and check the surface fully.
bad tracks is the cancer for harddrives, it will grow gradually.
Though you can avoid the bad tracks now, it will affect other tracks later. i've seen a few similar cases some are slow some are fast.
The best one i saw is the hard drive die after one year when the first bad track is found. the worst ( which is mine) did not manage to survive for a month.
Start to save money today, prepare for a new one...
sorry about that.