I recently upgraded my computer's hard drive and did some hard drive research in the process.

A couple of things I discovered. IBM drives are now made by Toshiba. There is a particular IBM drive, perhaps it is the 75XP???, that apparently is a pile. There is talk of a class action lawsuit, it was either one of the last hard drives IBM made, or the first one made by their new supplier. (I think it was one of the last ones that IBM made)

The other important thing to note is that hard drive makers have combined lower prices with shorter warranty coverage. You used to get 3 years, perhaps as much as 5 years warranty coverage for your hard drive.

Now, 1 year appears to be the new "standard" warranty for hard drives.

The logical approach would be for anyone doing non-linear editing, to definitely back-up your hard drives. (or any other important computer work) The trade-off appears to be that since the price has come down so much on hard drives, you can buy two hard drives with a one year warranty for the same money you would have paid two - three years ago to get one hard drive with a 3-5 year warranty.

Taking the cheaper way out, buying only one new hard drive, may lead to a major disappoint should the hard drive ever fail.