Gents,
 
I'm in the final stages of rebuilding a "new" DAW and am tearing my hair out with the hard drive selection.  So much has changed in the last many years WRT hard drives that my head is spinning (no pun).  There's now a bazillion different "lines" within each hard drive mfr of which they seem to change the naming conventions every few years, and there's also shenanigans going on with shady resellers who are apparently passing off used drives as new, and even operating under multiple aliases/listings.  And a lot of advertised refurbs as well.  It's a real minefield out there.  So I am totally and utterly confused as to what to buy or even where to buy it.  I've been all over the web for days on end searching & researching, and am more confused than ever.   
 
Eventually I will go with SSD, but for now I was just planning on a pair of 7200 RPM internal 3.5" hard drives that are reliable over the long haul and aren't going to cost a fortune.  I want something that might live 10 years with light use.  I've always managed to get 7-10 years out of retail store-bought drives - but those were drives purchased long ago and I'm getting the distinct impression many of the drives made now days are low quality (at least on the consumer end) only designed to live 1-3 years?

BTW, i only need 250GB capacities, however it looks like 500GB is about the minimum in recent production. So size isn't a concern.
 
Any opinions on make/model of drives to seek, or to avoid, and/or places to purchase would be greatly appreciated. 
 
Sonic

If you don't have a retailer of choice already, I would recommend Newegg or Amazon.
 
Amazon has the best return policy, but pay attention to the seller on any given transaction.  If it says "shipped from and sold by Amazon", no problem!
 
Amazon also provides a storefront for selected 3rd party merchants, in addition to the products that they carry directly.  Regardless, if the order is fulfilled and shipped from an Amazon distribution center, you should have no issue with returns.
 
For spinning drives, you cannot go wrong with a WD Blue 1TB 7200 RPM HDD.  They are now $49.99 and free shipping.  I have had one of these for 3 years and it performs flawlessly.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Cache-Desktop-Drive-WD10EZEX/dp/B0088PUEPK/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1502672585&sr=1-3&keywords=hdd
 

abacab
 
For spinning drives, you cannot go wrong with a WD Blue 1TB 7200 RPM HDD.  They are now $49.99 and free shipping.  I have had one of these for 3 years and it performs flawlessly.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Cache-Desktop-Drive-WD10EZEX/dp/B0088PUEPK/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1502672585&sr=1-3&keywords=hdd
 

Thanks, I saw that WD Blue actually.  I also found a WD Re, which is "allegedly" a lot more heavy-duty. But again, too many options to sift through and decipher.  I may as well throw darts.  2 year warranty on the WD Blue?  Last WD retail disk I bought had a FIVE year warranty.
 
Another thing to consider....if I only need small capacity (actually as low as 160GB) then I am into the same price territory for an SSD as I would be buying a 1TB spinner who's storage I don't need.  But using XP, I'm not sure if the SSD's are smart enough yet to handle all the wear-leveling logic internally?  Ugh....   

RE stands for Raid Edition, they're meant for servers, I think more in the Prosumer than the actual professional market. I have a couple in my home server and they have been reliable. I don't do heavy duty stuff but it's switched on most of the time.

Tbh I've preferred the WD Black series over Blue. They're more reliable, although somewhat noisier if that is a consideration for you. But like you said, if you don't need a large capacity you'd probably love an SSD, it's dead quiet (no moving parts) and way faster. I have no experience with XP and how it handles. I would really again recommend NOT to run XP to be honest. I understand your reasoning, I just still think it's not a good idea ;)

Good luck with whatever build you end up going with!

New hardware and XP may or may not be possible.  Even Windows 7 with some new motherboard hardware is a major task.  

6 Things You Shouldn’t Do With Solid-State Drives
https://www.howtogeek.com/165472/6-things-you-shouldnt-do-with-solid-state-drives/
 
"Don’t Use Windows XP, Windows Vista or Disable TRIM
 
If your computer is using a solid-state drive, it should be using a modern operating system. In particular, this means you shouldn’t use Windows XP or Windows Vista. Both of these old operating systems do not include support for the TRIM command. When you delete a file on your hard drive, the operating system can’t send the TRIM command to the drive, so the file’s data will remain in those sectors on the drive.
 
In addition to allowing for theoretical recovery of your private data, this will slow things down. When your operating system tries to write a new file to that free space, the sectors must first be erased, then written to. This makes file-write operations take longer and will slow down your drive’s write performance.
 
This is also why you shouldn’t disable TRIM on Windows 7 and other modern operating systems. It’s enabled by default — leave it that way."

Sanderxpander

Tbh I've preferred the WD Black series over Blue. They're more reliable, although somewhat noisier if that is a consideration for you.

I've been buying WD 7200RPM drives for almost 20 years, and have never had one fail, so never had to test the warranty.  I have had a few used daily for over 10 years that had to be retired (needed larger drives). 
 
I have used many of the 80GB drives, but eventually replaced them with 320GB versions, and I'm still using 3 of those in another system.  The 1TB Blue that I have been using for the past three years in my DAW still reports perfect health in the SMART info and disk self test.  It is fast, quiet, and reliable.
 
It appears that 500GB is the smallest capacity WD desktop drive currently available.
 
I noticed recently that WD has removed all 7200 RPM drives EXCEPT the 500 GB & 1TB model from the Blue label, and they are only available in the Black version for 2TB and up.  The 1TB only costs $2 more than the 500GB. 
 
So if you need more than 1TB capacity in a 7200 RPM HDD, you are stuck with Black (with a higher price point).
https://www.wdc.com/products/internal-storage.html

I've had two WD drives fail but they were in my home server. The RE I stuck in there years ago are still fine. So are all my black editions.

Thanks guys, please keep the input coming, very appreciated.
 
Contrary to what I said previously, given the quality challenges with modern hard disks I am now rethinking the SSD route, especially since I only need small storage capacities, and it seems modern hard drives lifespan are highly uncertain.
 
Also, from what I understand, most SSD's now have the ability within the firmware to handle wear-leveling and other aspects so it's not a major factor any longer using an OS such as XP that has no SSD knowledge.  (If I'm wrong then please set me straight)
 
New thread WRT SSD configuration questions: http://forum.cakewalk.com...-m3643784.aspx#3643784
 
Sonic

SonicExplorer
 
given the quality challenges with modern hard disks

What is that opinion based upon?