It may not be a balanced sample size, but it's his personal experience and that isn't going to change the fast Madmat has had better experience with WD drives than with Seagate. And that's fine, any tech enthusiast is likely to have strong opinions based on their own unique experience.
Just as it won't change the fact that one WD drive I bought began acting erratically and causing blue screens within a year. The RMA'd replacement began doing the exact same thing a year after that. Back when electronic stores sold HDDs at cost under rebates to lure in customers I used to buy them and flip them on eBay for extra hardware funds... I've had a buyer from one retail model WD ask me a year later what to do because the NIB WD drive I sold him had died, just outside its 1 year warranty. All HDDs eventually will die, but having so many die around 12 motnhs like clockwork soured me fast on Western Digital Blue drives.
For that reason if people are brand specific to WD I'll tell them to get the Blacks, which are built better and have a 5 year warranty to match, but users pay more for them too. Everyone has their own firsthand experience with drives... I can distinctly recall models where Seagate had problems, and models where WD had problems. None of 'em are perfect. But if someone buys ANY brand HDD with a 1-year warranty, I think they're just asking for trouble.
