If you were going to upgrade, and you weren't limited to those choices, would you go with something else?

No, I'd probably stick with the Travelstars, since that's what the empeg shipped with. That's what I did for my ReplayTV - came with Maxtor; upgraded with Maxtor.

Just after my first post I realized that operational shock isn't really the rating you'd be looking for if you're worried about dropping it, since one would assume it would be powered down if you were carrying it around.