I have had good luck with both Western Digital and Samsung. Highest failure rates experienced around here seem to be from the Maxtors.
I have a friend and former NASA scientist (she was on the ISS design team among other projects from the sixties through the eighties) who throughout her career was told that she was 'rough' on her fixed disks.
She has replaced two drives on her home computer in the past few years. Someone suggested resonance patterns and the type of data stored.
I guess it could be true.
