Hard drives for the most part are commodity items, except for a few specialty drives like the 10,000 RPM Raptor drives. All consumer drives are built the same way, with the same parts, in the same type of plants, even by the same people in some cases. Seagate aquired Matxor is 2005 for example. Some people have had better luck with some brands then others. I have two WD and one Maxtor drives. I have always used WD drives just because and of course a drive or two has failed on me over the years. My friend who uses and swears by Seagate drives has had Seagate drives fail on him as well.
The more important thing is to BACK UP your data regaurdless of what brand of drive you choose.