http://www.behardware.com/articles/788-6/components-returns-rates.html

     Hard drives


These rates were only for returns to the retailer, which isn’t always 
the case as you can also return a product directly to the manufacturer: 
this does however represent a minority in the first year.

- Hitachi 0.92% (against 0.92%)
- Western Digital 0.99% (against 0.89%)
- Maxtor 1.73% (against 2.79%)
- Samsung 1.93% (against 2.25%)
- Seagate 2.58% (against 2.89%)

Western has lost first place, while the returns rate for the others has 
fallen. Lets see where we are for drives with a higher than 5% returns rate:

- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500 GB: 39%
- Maxtor DiamondMax 22 500 GB: 10.4%
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500 GB (8 MB): 10%
- Maxtor DiamondMax 22 1 TB: 8.9%
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750 GB: 6.5%

The 7200.11 and DiamondMax 22 continue to undermine the Seagate and 
Maxtor results because of the firmware bug over this period. Here are 
the rates for 1 TB drives:

- Maxtor DiamonMax 22: 8.9%
- Seagate Barracuda LP: 2.3%
- Samsung SpinPoint F1: 2.2%
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11: 2%
- Maxtor DiamondMax 23: 1.9%
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12: 1.8%
- Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B: 1.2%
- Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS: 0.7%
- Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS: 0.7%

Western Digital confirms its excellent reliability on high-end models 
and is at the head of the pack with its Green and Black models. Next 
come Seagate/Maxtor with the 7200.12/DM23 ranges which are identical, 
then the 7200.12, the Samsung SpinPoint F1, the Barracuda LP and the 
DiamondMax 22 with a very high rate linked to a firmware problem. The 
results for the Barracuda LP are quite disappointing as its 5900 rpm 
rotation speed should play in its favour.