IBM's line of hard drives are no longer available under their name brand. I believe Hitachi has taken over the deskstar line and I have several that have not given me any issues. I've tried many many brands over the past 2 decades. They all have their stories of failures and/or reliability. Best thing to do is make sure you stick with Major brands with warranties. Seems in *MY* expierience, that the FUJITSU hard drives (IDE66's and 100's) all FAIL as soon as their warranties expire. I use nothing but WD raptor drives in my personal computers, and have been using Samsung and Hitachi drives for private sector clients without issues. For my business oriented clients that have servers where SCSI is chosen HD interface, I usually go with Seagate. Would you choose a Mercedes over a BMW or Cadillac? Would you choose a Toyota over a Honda? Some people ARE Brand loyal, others couldn't care less, they'll buy whatever suits their fancy at the time of purchase. Just make sure you pick a product with a good warranty and BACK UP your data on a REGULAR basis (once a year is not enough!).
Peace.
