I have a Seagate Barracuda 320 GB with 10MB Cache, just recently installed ubuntu 9.10 and it reported that the hard drive was failing and had many bad sectors. It also said the drive was powered on for about 1.8 years. What drive should I replace it with, could someone help me look on ncix.com to figure out a new drive at around $100 or lower. I was looking at the Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7200RPM 32MB Dual Proc 3.5IN SATA Hard Drive. Is this one good???

Western Digital, Samsung and Seagate are all good. Look for something with 7200rpm and 16MB cache or greater and you'll be fine. If the Caviar Black meets your budget then go for it!

Cheers

Paul

WD Caviar black.Good performance and reliability.Ive got one,its great.Ive noticed its at least twice as fast as my WD blue(16mb).At least when copying files anyway.A 7gb file on my blue would transfer at about 30-40mb/s,but the black hits 100mb/s regularly.