Since the flood in Thailand, its pretty much a crap shoot finding a reliable HDD. Across the range of consumer class HDDs, Brand/series/model, nearly all have horrible failure rates. Average floats between 20%~35% and certain models like WD Red series is even higher. One big exception to this fiasco is WD's Scorpio Black 2.5" 7200 RPM drive. Yep, that's right! This laptop HDD has a lower failure rate then the majority, much lower. ATM, this is the ONLY series of rotational drive I will purchase. And btw, WD still backs up this series with a 5 year warranty. The only downside for you Jed is a 750GB limit in this series.
WD Mobile --->
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=790
Scorpio Black at Newegg --->
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...CE&PageSize=20