Considering that PCs used to boot from floppy disks, which are several orders of magnitude less reliable than any hard disk, I don't think you have much of a need to worry. If data integrity is a big thing with you, you will want a filesystem that keeps track of data hygeine (such as ZFS) - as even ...

Thanks for the comments. I asked the seller (Jakob Elektronik in Germany) to change the order to the 16MB cache version (the ST3500414CS) - I didn't see that drive on the lineup PDF (it only mentioned the 8MB version, for some reason.) I may get it sooner, though - they apparently have >100 units of...

I did some research for a media-friendly hard disk to replaced the clapped-out WD RE2 500GB, which gave up the ghost surprisingly quickly in my SkyHD box. It turns out that Seagate has just started producing a very interesting drive, based on 5900 RPM spindle speed - so it's faster than a regular 54...

Mine failed today. I came in and found the computer buzzing (I'd left it burning two DVDs at once), which pretty much nailed the power supply as the cause. A replacement power supply, bought in a hurry and fitted just as urgently, confirmed the failure was the PSU; everything works fine with the new...