And let's start with writing ALL externals are not reliable. In fact the lesson if you haven't learned it is that unless there's a second and maybe third copy elsewhere, your files are at risk no matter who made this (less than price of a car) external drive.

Once you get past the idea that picking a brand or model will get you more reliable you can get something like the POGOPLUG and then another thing for a backup copy.

http://reviews.cnet.com/networking-and-wi-fi/pogoplug-2nd-generation/4505-3243_7-34008509.html is unkind about this but they tried the media playing which will demand great throughput. It's still a cloud system with local storage so it takes time for folk to figure out what it is.

And as drives zoomed to 2TB and more you can bet folk will find out what happens.
Bob