I don't have any brand loyalty with WD, but I always hear good things about their hard drives. Then again, my brother had an internal WD that died after about 4 years. The cause is unknown since I'd expect to hear clicking or grinding before a hard drive fails, but heard nothing with his. Still, I suppose any hard drive manufacturer is susceptible to that. I've owned two internal ones, one which is still working after over 6 years.
I also have a 320 GB version of the Passport Essential hard drive, which I guess is a more portable version of the My Books (it doesn't have an AC adapter and just plugs right into USB). I was apprehensive before I bought it because I read that a lot of USB ports (especially on older computers) don't have enough power going to USB to be able to run it, in which case you have to buy a separate adapter to run off two USB ports. When I first tried it, I got random disconnects. I'm still not sure why, but I was running from my front USB ports at the time, so I switched to the USB directly from my motherboard in the back instead and it seems to work perfectly since then. So it could've been my front USB ports were too cheap and weak. So other than that, it works pretty good. I wasn't impressed with the software that comes with it though and had problems using it or knowing if it was running properly, so I chose not to use it. And I hate how it turns on as soon as it's plugged in and you have to unplug it to shut it off while the computer is on. There's no power switch. It's kind of like a giant USB stick (which is still small enough I could fit it in my pocket).
It works, and that's all that matters to me after my last external hard drive that I bought from Micronet. Bought that one with a rebate, sent it in and never got it back. And it has a habit of shutting off randomly and will switch on and off over and over. Not sure if it's a bad AC adapter or what, but I barely use it except for junk.
As long as you choose a well known brand like WD, Seagate, or Maxtor, you should be fine. I tend to choose drives with the best reviews for the price. Even better, if it's on sale. I often see those My Book and Passport Essential hard drives on sale at Buy.com, which is how I really ended up choosing mine.
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