Not external, but I use Seagate drives exclusively at home and work. There's probably about 50 spinning around me somewhere. I had one out of all of those start to grow bad blocks about a week after install, and one other stop spinning after 1.5 years (2 year warranty on this SAS model). Both replaced without fuss, for $9 Seagate even cross-shipped replacements, with a return carton.


Pioneer PDP-5020FD, Marantz SR6011
Axiom M5HP, VP160HP, QS8
Sony PS4, surround backs
-Chris