Have heard mixed reviews on both company. From my short experience, the 2 Maxtor drive never failed.
Is Western Digital very reliable and quiet?
Are both drives good for 24x7 usage?
Maxtor seemed to have some problems early on, but lately, I haven't had a problem with them and all three systems I have have at least 1 Maxtor in them. On the other hand, I've never had a problem with Western Digital either.
The only brand I've had problems with were a pair of IBM 60GXP's. Even with cooling, they both failed within a year.
I've bought Maxtor, with in a week, has to return it! Then got a Segate, which stopped working after a year! Been using a Samsung HD for the last couple of months!