HDD failures are the worst - you can replace almost any other part of the PC without any difference, but with a HDD the data's lost forever. I've been quite lucky in that I've only had 2 failures so far, both happened to be Maxtor drives. Touch wood, I haven't had any failures with my Seagates so far (been using them exclusively since about 5 years ago) and I'd recommened the brand to anyone who's looking for a new HDD. I know Maxtor and Seagate are both owned by the same company, but it seems like they take more care over the Seagates than the Maxtors.