EADS drives aren't available locally - they haven't been for a long time as I also looked a few months ago. The EARS is not on the ReadyNAS compatibility list.

I have 4 Seagate 1.5TB drives in the NAS right now, all with updated firmware. The one with the most reallocated sectors is up to 18 - it started at 0 on December 8th of 2009.

I also have 4 Seagate drives in my PVR which have been doing well. 2x 500GB, a 300GB and a 250GB.

The problem reports on the Seagate drives (in general) do worry me and that's why I was looking at something else. I'd jump on the Samsung if I could buy it locally. Perhaps I will take the chance with the WD and apply the patch to change the parking time-out to 30 seconds as well as the jumper to operate in legacy mode.