I need to buy a new hard drive. Looking at 40GB options. Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, or IBM Deskstar? Which is most reliable? Prices are all about the same at CompUSA.

Avoid the IBM Deskstar 75GXP — it has a very high failure rate, people are calling it the Deathstar. Seagate Barracuda is the most reliable in my experience.

Western Digital Caviar has been rock solid for me. Four drives in three years, zero failures.

Maxtor DiamondMax is good and usually the cheapest. Get the 7200RPM version for better performance.

Went with Seagate Barracuda. The silence alone is worth it — my old drive sounded like a blender.