Ok, I admit the stat in the title is sensationalist, but the truth of the matter is that out of 6 drives I've had 3 fail.
- Oct 2005: One was DOA.
- Oct 2005: One started complaining about SMART errors less than 24h after I purchased it.
Both these drives were replaced by the retailer.
- Mar 2007: One has recently developed a bunch of bad sectors which apparently cannot be repaired. Windows crashes when attempting to back it up.
So out of 6 drives total, 3 never did/no longer work.
Seagate 300Gb SATA, FWIW