Some years ago I retired a computer because of a bad hard disk. It was essentially obsolete anyway.
Come the find out the real problem was that the cooling fan on the processor chip wan't working, so the machine would slow down, make errors and freeze after a short while. HD OK.
I have had three hard disk failures, all within the 3-year warranty period:
One Seagate many years ago.
The only two Western Digital drives I've bought.
Never had a failure with Maxtor even after quite a few years of use. Knock on wood.