I've had many, many drives over the years, and at least seven of them were/are western digitals.... Never a failure...
I've got on ethat's been running for 5 years, another here thats been running for 3, and another for 2.....
Every drive can fail, and every manufacturer goes through periods of where they have problems with one model or another ie; IBM, Maxtor.
My advice, buy on warranty......The Hitachi, and Seagate warranties are leading the pack right now, and that's all that really matters today. I have two Hitachis, and one seagate in my collection too.