MMM, very intersesting thread, I have to say that I like it a lot.
I myself had a harddrive fail, and a 120 gig maxtor, but it was like 5 years old, in and out of 4 computers, use for storage, windows os, linux os, and what not.
But I have never had any trouble with Maxtor, Western Digital, Or Segate.
But just for my personal opinion, the only two brands that I trust is Western Digital and Maxtor, never tried a Segate, something about the name bothers the hell out of me for some reason, and never tried on and never will. Hope that I am not raining on anyones parade of segate harddrives