[Limulus]

i've had lots of trouble with external harddiscs, however the newer WD portable ones do a good job for me since about 1 year now.

for important files (like shows, family,...) just do "multiple" back-ups on harddiscs, data discs, internet etc.
yes, it can get some ugly time consuming, but in the end you dont really wanna ever loose original data when there is no copy from.