Seagate DiamondMax® Plus 9 120 GB ATA-133 Hard Drive

For years, Western Digital was my choice of hard drives, as an extensive computer user and as a computer repair technician. They were reliable and quiet.
Today, though, Western Digital has sadly deteriorated into an also-ran. Their warranties are too short and, if you do have to send in a return (their early My Books were a disaster to poor design and overheating that would destroy them within a matter of weeks!), they send you a beat-up used drive that is "refurbished" - someone else's reject.
Among the leaders that leaves Maxtor and Seagate, even though Maxtor is owned by Seagate now.
My clear choice is Seagate because of (a) its 5-year warranty and (b) its much-improved reliability. Some years back, Seagate was my second choice.
But be careful! If you buy a Seagate hard drive at retail outlets like Staples, Best Buy, OfficeMax (avoid this place like the plague anyway!) or Office Depot, they may come with NO WARRANTY!
Always ask first. These retailers have some kind of deal with Seagate where (according to Staples' online help desk and one of their Nashville store managers) they have no warranty from the manufacturer. You have to buy an extended warranty from Staples. This is a somewhat underhanded little scheme so Staples, and presumably the other mass retailers, can put in their pockets what you should get for free!
You can go directly to the Seagate website and order the SAME DRIVE at the same price - with the 5-year warranty. I experienced this when I bought two internal 1-Tb Seagate Barracudas.
There's another bonus if you buy a new Seagate HD. You get a CD (DiscWizard - also downloadable) that lets you transfer your entire OLD drive (Windows, programs, settings and documents) to the new drive for free.
Many other programs are available out there to do this, but they are expensive and you can only make one transfer under their licenses, so this can easily be a $50-$76 value every time you use it!
Be forewarned, though, one of the drives (old or new) MUST be a Seagate drive. Western Digital does not offer such a program. Windows File Transfer won't even come close to what DiscWizard does.
And the whole process is very painless!
Today, when my customers ask me what brand of hard drive to buy, I tell them without hesitation - Seagate, but always check the warranty if you buy it in a retail store. You should be getting a 5-year warranty.
Maxtor, sadly, is in second place, despite being owned by Seagate. Their warranties aren't as good and in my experience they die sooner.
One last piece of Hard Drive wisdom.
Avoid the external drives UNLESS the case has a fan. They simply get too hot and burn up quicker. The warranties (on all brands) are generally poorer.
For the same money you can buy a good, fan-equipped external case, buy a quality internal drive (either IDE or SATA) and have a much longer-lasting product.